PRIME Minister Liz Truss's keynote speech to the Tory party conference was interrupted by environmental campaigners protesting her fracking policies.
A few minutes into her speech, while Truss was telling delegates that she refused to "consign our great country to decline", a rumble could be heard within the crowd.
The cameras in the arena turned to two female Greenpeace campaigners holding a yellow banner which read: "Who voted for this?"
The protesters were Ami McCarthy and Rebecca Newsom, who both work in public affairs for Greenpeace.
Speaking after the speech, the pair said Truss's lifting of the fracking moratorium was a "complete joke".
During the incident, one woman could be heard shouting: "Who voted for fracking?"
The crowd of Tory members started to boo and chant “out”, while one man could be seen pushing the banner down from behind the two women.
Truss could then be heard saying: "Let's get them removed."
One of the activists, wearing a blue blazer, could be seen shouting as security removed her from the crowd.
Taken by the arms by two security guards, the young woman could be seen laughing as she was led away and booed again by the crowd.
Afterwards, a laughing Truss told the delegates: “Well, thank you, thank you. Now later on in my speech my friends I’m going to talk about the anti-growth coalition but I think they arrived in the hall too early, they were meant to come later on. So we’ll get on to them in a few minutes.”
McCarthy and Newsom said they were “holding the Government to account” for its promises on net zero.
Newsom told reporters: “This year we really felt we needed to make an intervention because nobody actually voted for a lot of what Liz Truss and her Government are trying to do at the moment.
“Nobody voted for fracking, nobody voted to cut benefits, nobody voted to trash nature, nobody voted to scrap workers’ rights.
“There’s a whole host of things that the Conservative government were elected to do in 2019 that they are simply not doing and we needed to take that message and represent the public and actually push for Liz Truss to remain true to what the public has actually asked her and her Government to do.”
She added: "The protest was very much about the U-turn on the fracking moratorium that is a complete joke and the public doesn’t want that to happen and it makes absolutely no sense on climate terms either.
“You saw yourself in the video before Liz Truss walked on there was a big focus on new oil and gas in the North Sea.
“That’s not going to cut bills, that’s not going to give us energy security and it’s rubbish for the climate so absolutely we are concerned about that as well.”
Truss has come under fire for lifting the moratorium on fracking in England as part of her "growth" plan for the UK economy.
Later in her speech, the Prime Minister said: “Economic growth makes us strong at home and strong abroad and we need an economically sound and secure United Kingdom and that will mean challenging those who try to stop growth.
“I will not allow the anti-growth coalition to hold us back.
“Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the hall earlier.
“The fact is they prefer protesting to doing. They prefer talking on Twitter to taking tough decisions.
“They taxi from north London townhouses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo.
“From broadcast to podcast, they peddle the same old answers.
“It’s always more taxes, more regulation and more meddling.
“Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter: "Ranting about an imaginary ‘anti growth coalition’ is just an attempt to obscure the hard reality that the biggest brake on UK growth is Brexit - and that’s on the Tories."
Gillian Mackay, Scottish Greens MSP, said: “Her speech was less Iron Lady than lead balloon. She has no answers, she has no plans - instead she directed her half-hearted barbs at unions, at the media, at the Scottish Government and climate campaigners - all those fighting against her cruel regime.
“It speaks volumes that the biggest cheer coming from the Tories was not for their leader, but as two climate protestors from Greenpeace who unfurled a banner asking ‘Who Voted For This’ were huckled from the hall by security.
“It truly was a dark day for the climate when she celebrated being the party of fracking, of oil and gas, of unproven nuclear technology - but it is she and her party who will eventually be held accountable for robbing children of their future."
After the speech, plenty of social media users congratulated Greenpeace for the stunt.
One wrote: "Good on #Greenpeace! These Truss Tories are acting as if Climate Change doesn’t exist so they can continue to make money."
While Drew Hendry, SNP MP, tweeted: "I think the big takeaway line from this Liz Truss speech is 'let's have them removed' the fact that she says it, on stage, also says everything about the abject fear this Government has of, well, people over ideology."
And, Outlander star Sam Heughan appeared to show support from the protesters, tagging Greenpeace and sharing a clapping emoji.
