Mark Field suspended as minister after grabbing climate
protester by neck
Police investigate reports of assault as video shows Field
forcefully removing woman
Patrick Greenfield
@pgreenfielduk Email
Fri 21 Jun 2019 11.27 BST
Mark Field has been suspended as a Foreign Office minister
after a video showed him pushing a female Greenpeace activist against a pillar
and grabbing her neck while she protested at the chancellor’s Mansion House
speech.
Police are investigating third-party reports of assault made
against Field, who has since apologised to the Greenpeace protester and referred
himself to the Cabinet Office. The MP for the Cities of London and Westminster
said he felt threatened when the protester went past him and was worried she
might have been armed.
Dozens of Greenpeace activists disrupted Philip Hammond to
draw attention to the climate crisis as the chancellor prepared to deliver his
set-piece address in the City of London, video footage of the incident shows.
Labour called for Field to resign after the incident, with
the shadow women and equalities secretary, Dawn Butler, calling the incident
“horrific”.
In a statement released in the early hours of Friday before
his suspension, Field said he had reacted “instinctively” and was “genuinely
worried” that the protester may have been armed.
He said he “grasped the intruder firmly in order to remove
her from the room as swiftly as possible”, adding: “I deeply regret this
episode and unreservedly apologise to the lady concerned for grabbing her but
in the current climate I felt I needed to act decisively to close down the threat
to the safety of those present.”
Field said he had referred himself to the Cabinet Office to
“examine if there has been a breach of the ministerial code and will of course
cooperate fully with their investigation”.
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