Protestors from the climate action group Extinction Rebellion blocked the entrance of an HMRC building over its relationship with Barclays Bank.
A number of activists sat in the road leading up to the entrance of the HMRC building in Longbenton on Monday morning (March 14) with colorful flags and placards around their necks.
The demonstration comes one month after protestors from the group occupied the roof of the same HMRC building to demand it stops banking with Barclays.
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HMRC currently uses Barclays’ payment solutions to process National Insurance and Self-Assessment tax payments, Child Benefit repayments and a range of other HMRC transactions.
Extinction Rebellion says that this is an unacceptable relationship as the bank invests its profits into financing the fossil fuel industry.
They said that it leaves taxpayers no choice but to be complicit in environmental exploitation without their consent or knowledge.
Extinction Rebellion activist Helen from Gateshead was taking part in the demonstration on Monday.
She said: “It is horrific to think of the devastation that is happening across the whole world to people, animals and the land itself due to fossil fuel extraction.
"This is causing immense suffering right now but is also having a detrimental effect on the future of the planet and of human civilisation.
"It sickens me to think that banks like Barclays are using customers’ money to invest in fossil fuels.
"HMRC banks with Barclays so taxpayers’ money is being used to destroy our home, the only home we have.
"People need to know the truth about how their money is being used. That’s why I’m taking part in this action.”
Extinction Rebellion activist Andy from Gateshead was also taking part in the action as he called for more investment into renewable energy.
He said: “The current energy and cost of living crisis we face in the UK is directly linked to investments made by companies like Barclays.
"Rather than investing more heavily in renewables and home insulation, it focused on fossil fuel investments.”
He continued: "These new fossil fuel developments won't make any difference to current prices because they won't come onstream for decades.
"The quickest and cheapest way to reduce energy bills now is insulating our homes and investing in renewables”.
Barclays said it is investing £175m into innovative, green start-ups and aims to become a net-zero bank by 2050.
A Barclays spokesman said: "We are aligning our entire financing portfolio to support the goals of the Paris Agreement - significantly scaling up green financing, directly investing in new green technologies and helping clients in key sectors change their business models to reduce their climate change impact.
"By 2025, we will reduce the emissions intensity of our power portfolio by 30%, and reduce absolute emissions of our energy portfolio by 15%.
"Increasing at pace, our capital markets business has already facilitated £46bn of green finance.
"We are one of the only banks globally investing our own capital – £175m – into innovative, green start-ups.
"By deploying finance in this way, we are accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy and will become a net-zero bank by 2050."
Northumbria Police confirmed that the group of protestors had been at the site from around 7.40am and left peacefully before 9.30am.
A force spokeswoman said: "Shortly before 7.40am today (Monday), police received a report of a small group of protestors outside HMRC.
"The group dispersed peacefully shortly before 9.30am."
An HMRC spokesman said: “There was a small demonstration outside the main gates of our Benton Park View site in Newcastle this morning which ended at around 9.30am. Police have been in attendance and our services are unaffected by today’s activity.”
