Green MP Caroline Lucas: Fracking arrest was not self promotion

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas today denied that she only went to a protest against fracking to get arrested and for the sake of “self promotion”.

Ms Lucas accepted she was “privileged” because as an MP she could protest in the House of Commons, but she argued it was also legitimate to demonstrate through “non-violent direct action”.  

Speaking on BBC News she said: “It’s not about self promotion. I don’t want to talk about myself I want to talk about fracking.”

The Brighton MP claimed many anti-fracking protesters who occupied a West Sussex drilling site yesterday had tried to contact MPs about their concerns but that the government was not taking notice.

She said: “I organised a debate on fracking in Parliament just before recess, and again there was no real listening from the government they just stuck to their set line.

“That means that there are occasions, and they’re limited occasions, but there are occasions when democratic channels have been tried and failed, when it can be legitimate to take non-violent direct action.”

Ms Lucas was among around 30 people arrested when campaigners opposed to fracking, a technique to recover gas from shale rock, staged protests around the country.

She was taken in by police officers when she joined hundreds of people gathered outside the gates of energy firm Cuadrilla’s drilling site in Balcombe to demonstrate.

Cuadrilla currently only plans to drill for oil at Balcombe, but campaigners fear fracking will follow.

Protesters also blockaded the headquarters of Cuadrilla, while others superglued themselves to a PR company used by the energy firm.

Ms Lucas accepted there were “a lot of fears and perhaps some exaggeration” amongst concerns about fracking but said people were angry because there had not been an “honest debate”.