Sky News host has live broadcast cut off as activists stage protest

Sky News interrupted by security officer as protest takes place

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Sky’s Chief Political Correspondent Jon Craig’s interview was interrupted when a security guard tried to cover the camera during a Greenpace protest. He told the guard: “We’ve midway through an interview, excuse me.”

Up to 40 protesters gathered in the central lobby and refused to move.

Their banner read: “Chaos costs lives”.

Watching the protesters run in, Mr Craig said: “I don’t know if viewers can see but we seem to have a demo behind us going on.

“We’ll carry on though.”

Greenpeace said dozens of activists had occupied the central lobby of Parliament calling on the next prime minister Rishi Sunak to back a windfall tax on fossil fuels, better support for households and home insulation.

The green group said more than 30 campaigners from Greenpeace and Fuel Poverty Action entered the Palace of Westminster as tourists and visitors and were occupying the central lobby, linking arms, reading testimonies from people struggling with bills and unfurled a banner reading “chaos costs lives”.

Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director, Will McCallum, said: “Rishi Sunak should have realised by now the huge mistake he made by blocking plans for warmer homes and failing to properly tax fossil fuel giants.

“People need permanently lower bills and a safe climate, and that means more renewable energy, more financial support, a nationwide street-by-street insulation programme, and a proper tax on the energy profiteers to pay for it.”

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Ruth London, from Fuel Poverty Action, called for support for their “energy for all” proposal, giving each household enough free energy to cover basics such as heating, cooking and lighting, paid for windfall taxes, ending fossil fuel subsidies and higher prices for excess energy use.

The activists are endorsed by Disabled People Against Cuts, they said.

It comes as tens of thousands of protesters in six German cities gathered on Saturday to demand a more just distribution of government funds to deal with rising energy prices and living costs and a faster transition away from fossil fuels.

Protesters marched in Berlin, Duesseldorf, Hannover, Stuttgart, Dresden and Frankfurt-am-Main, holding signs bearing slogans on everything from lowering inflation to switching off nuclear power and more energy price subsidies for the poor.

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Around 24,000 people participated, according to Greenpeace, one of the organisers. Police said about 1,800 protesters gathered in Berlin.

“We want to show that we urgently need financial relief for citizens that is socially balanced. The government is doing a lot but it is distributing funds with a watering can. People with lower income need more support than the wealthy,” said Andrea Kocsis, deputy chair of ver.di, one of the unions organising the protests.

Germany’s parliament on Friday approved the government’s 200 billion euro ($195 billion) rescue package which aims to protect companies and households from the impact of soaring energy prices.

The package includes a one-off payment to cover one monthly gas bill for households and small and medium-sized businesses and a mechanism to limit prices from March.

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