Green MP targets Ministers over fracking

Ms Lucas also claimed the Government was refusing to listen to the evidence against fracking as she made a statement outside Crawley Magistrates’ Court following a hearing where denied offences allegedly committed during anti-fracking protests during the summer.

The Brighton Pavilion MP, who is charged with one count of breaching section 14 of the Public Order Act and one count of wilful obstruction of the highway outside the Cuadrilla exploratory drilling site in Balcombe, West Sussex, on August 19, will stand trial with four others early next year, the court was told.

After her court appearance, the 52-year-old, from Brighton, said: “The campaign to reduce the threat of climate change is incredibly important to me. Fracking for shale gas seriously undermines efforts to tackle the climate crisis, which in turn means our children, and theirs, will inherit a much more dangerous world.”

Ms Lucas continued: “The Government is not only refusing to listen to the evidence, it is choosing to become a flag-waver in chief for the fracking industry, offering them generous tax breaks as well as allowing them senior roles within the Government itself.

“By joining the peaceful protest in Balcombe I wanted to join with others in actively opposing the exploitation of yet more fossil fuels.”

She said her trial would take place early next year and that her constituents would be able to contact her as usual.

Opponents of fracking, in which water and chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release gas, fear it could harm water resources and cause small earthquakes.