Members of Green New Deal Rising make their demands outside the offices of Islington South MP Emily Thornberry on Friday

A GROUP of cam­paign­ing environmental activists are picketing MP Emily Thornberry’s office every week with green policy demands.

Green New Deal Rising (GNDR) have drawn up a five-point green new deal policy plan that they say will hold back the worst of the climate crisis if politicians act now.

The protesters are picket­ing MPs’ offices up and down the country every Friday until the Labour conference in October, or until MPs agree to meet them and publicly support green policies.

A sign outside the Islington South MP’s constituency office said: “Emily, don’t be Tornberry.”

Venice Van Someron, one of the organisers of the picket, told the Tribune: “We’re not trying to disrupt; we’re not trying to block the road or cover stuff in paint. But, we’re getting politicians to make commitments and hold them to those commitments.

“We’re calling on Labour MPs to take bold climate action, they’ve been u-turning on their pledges. We want all of the MPs we target to back our green new deal … We want more and more Labour MPs, especially higher up people like Emily Thornberry, on side. She’s the shadow attorney general so she’s high up on our list.

“It’s non-violent, it’s peaceful – but we want to be a thorn in Labour’s side and say that what we’re asking for is not radical policies. They’re popular policies that are financially feasible.

“The green new deal is about a socially-just economic model that is also focused on saving the planet.”

Maddy Jacob, 19, who grew up in Ms Thorn­berry’s constituency in Barnsbury, said: “I got involved because over the summer I had lots of free time and felt very anxious about climate change and about Labour’s backsliding on lots of environmental issues.”

She said it was frustrating that the “normally accepted view on climate change that’s coherent with all of the science” was not being taken seriously.

Ms Jacob says she got involved with GNDR because she felt the group was doing “something that feels really strategic about what’s going on.”

She added: “Also, on some level, I was also looking for community and people who share like-minded views and approaches to climate change, who share this very specific hang-up with the Labour Party.

“As a young person growing up, coming into adulthood with [Jeremy] Corbyn as leader, obviously they had their problems but it felt like your views were being represented.

“But now it’s obvious that Keir Starmer and his allies aren’t really speaking to us. They’re speaking to some other part of the population or some imaginary part of the electorate.

“It feels strange to hear things from the Labour party which aren’t appealing or exciting. They don’t address that sense of being frightened about climate change.”

Ms Thornberry is away, but told the Tribune the group would be “welcome” to meet with her at a surgery in September.