Extinction Rebellion protests to take place ahead of new ‘uprising’

Multiple demonstrations are due to take place across the country this weekend as environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion gears up for a new “uprising”.

Various stunts including a “funeral march” in Lewes, East Sussex, and a fancy dress tea party at Gatwick Airport are scheduled.

Extinction Rebellion says the activities over the August bank holiday weekend are a precursor to larger protests taking place from Tuesday.

The group is targeting other UK airports in an attempt to avoid the aviation industry’s return to “business as usual” which it says is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis.

Groups are set to gather near Stansted, Luton and Leeds Bradford airports in protest against planned expansions.

A march named “Procession for the Planet” is due to take place in Lewes, featuring black-clad mourners and a jazz band “to mark the death and destruction wrought by humans on our natural world”.

Activists in Brighton are planning an “epic voyage of rebellion” in which they will march from the seafront to London with a “Lightship” named after climate activist Greta Thunberg.

In London parents have been invited to take their children for a “Feed and Play-in” outside the Bank of England to protest against fossil fuel bailouts, and similar demonstrations are due to take place in Oxford, Cardiff, Leicester and York.

Extinction Rebellion was responsible for two weeks of protests last summer, which saw a shutdown of much of central London.