UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field has said that he apologizes "unreservedly" to a female Greenpeace activist who gatecrashed an official black-tie event at Mansion House as part of a climate demonstration for forcefully removing her out of the banquet hall
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st June, 2019) UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field has said that he apologizes "unreservedly" to a female Greenpeace activist who gatecrashed an official black-tie event at Mansion House as part of a climate demonstration for forcefully removing her out of the banquet hall, noting readiness to cooperate with a Cabinet Office investigation into the incident.
On Thursday evening, Greenpeace wrote on Facebook that its activists had gatecrashed the reception, where Chancellor Philip Hammond was about to deliver a state of the economy address, to "drown him out" with own speech about what they see as a climate emergency. The footage of the incident shows Field stopping a protester by grabbing her by the neck to push the woman against a column and escort her out of the hall.
In a statement to ITV Channel, Field said that he had apologized "unreservedly" to the activist, adding that he had referred himself to the Cabinet Office for probe.
"There was no security present and I was for a split-second genuinely worried she might have been armed. As a result I grasped the intruder firmly in order to remove her from the room as swiftly as possible. In the confusion many guests understandably felt threatened and when one protester rushed past me towards the top table I instinctively reacted," the minister said, as quoted by the channel.
Field added that he had "deeply" regretted the incident.
City of London Police, meanwhile, reportedly announced on Friday that they had received "a small number of third party reports of an assault taking place at the event" and were looking in them.
