Extinction Rebellion: Jacob Rees-Mogg interviewed a climate change activist and it went exactly how you can imagine

This week parts of London have been brought to a standstill by climate change activists Extinction Rebellion, who are demanding that the government declares a 'climate change emergency'.

The group has been occupying areas such as Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Jeremy Corbyn's house in acts of civil disobedience in an effort to provoke the government in bending to their demands.

Although their protest has been ongoing since Monday, the government is yet to issue an official response but one politician who has been willing to listen is surprisingly Jacob Rees-Mogg.

During the Tory MP's LBC Radioshow on Friday evening, he spoke to Dr Rupert Read, an academic at the University of East Anglia and spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.

It won't surprise you to read that Rees-Mogg is a bit of sceptic when it comes to climate change (as long as it benefits us outside of the EU, anyway) so this conversation went as well as expected.

During their heated discussion, which often descended into bickering and talking over one another, Rees-Mogg challenged Read on the group's association with actress Emma Thompson and why none of them has stood for election.

Read, who is a Green Party politician, and who has stood for election replied:

If you use the right statistics - if you include air emissions...then actually emissions have barely gone down since 1990. So it's just not true that we're showing leadership on this.

The traditional democratic system is just not good enough...It's failing us and it's broken.

This is an emergency. What part of that don't you understand?

Rees-Mogg replied:

Don't you have a high profile actress who's flown over especially to join your protests?

So you don't like air travel when it's for other people but when it's for your mates that's fine.

As the conversation progressed, Rees-Mogg admitted that he is pro-fracking and questioned when the protests are likely to end but failed to allow Read a chance to answer.

Needless to say, we doubt Rees-Mogg actually learnt anything from this exchange.

You can watch the full interview in the video below.

HT LBC

More: Extinction Rebellion protester storms out of Sky news interview after Adam Boulton calls him 'middle class', 'incompetent' and 'self-indulgent'