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.
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Labour called for Field to resign after the incident, with the shadow women and equalities secretary, Dawn Butler, calling the incident “horrific”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/mark-field-suspended-as-minister-after-grabbing-climate-protester-by-neckMark Field urged to quit as minister after grabbing climate protester
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The Conservative party chairman, Brandon Lewis, said the incident had been referred for an internal investigation, telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday: “It’s very hard not to be astonished by what you’ve seen.”
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The Liberal Democrat former cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey called on Field to resign from the government. “No ifs, no buts about this. The sight of some penguin-suited Tory minister behaving in a violent way towards a female Greenpeace activist absolutely stinks.”
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The Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley defended Field, saying the activist “was trying to create a fuss. Most viewers would say it’s good that she didn’t succeed.”
Last month, Field delivered a speech at a Westminster Hall debate in which he decried violence against and intimidation of female activists across the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/20/greenpeace-activists-target-philip-hammond-speech-in-climate-protest
Field's suspended pending inquiries. I doubt the Tories are going to want this to rumble on for that length of time, not least because a number of their spokespeople and supporters are stinking up social and mainstream media with revolting defences of his conduct.
Boris Johnson's team, on the other hand, may be loving it. If Johnson ever bothers to face the press again, I guess he may be asked about it.
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