Greenpeace protesters climbed into the rafters of the London conference hall staging the CBI Conference this morning and disrupted a speech in which Tony Blair was to make the case for the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants. Mr Blair ultimately gave his speech more than an hour later than planned, in a much smaller meeting hall.
Two members of Greenpeace had passed through security checks only to don fluorescent jackets and use lightweight climbing equipment to clamber into the roof of the Business Design Centre in Islington 15 minutes before the Prime Minister was due to take to the podium.
The time of the speech and the identity of the speaker had been kept off the conference agenda for security reasons, although Mr Blair's presence and the nature of his address was widely flagged up to the media on Monday.
After a 40-minute stand-off - during which the protesters dropped yellow "nuclear fall-out" confetti on the delegates and Mr Blair went off and had a cup of tea - the CBI's director general, Sir Digby Jones, emerged, somewhat embarrassed, to say that the speech would go ahead in another room.
Sir Digby said that the protesters had agreed to come down only if they could make a ten-minute speech before the Prime Minister's address. He said they had instead been offered the chance to ask Mr Blair the first question after his speech on energy policy, but had declined.
"I'm not prepared to accept that," Sir Digby said, to cheers from the delegates. "At the end of the day, I don't give in to ultimatums and it's not going to happen."
He said that although Mr Blair had offered to risk heckling from the protesters and go ahead with his speech in the main hall, he delivered the speech instead from another exhibition gallery, where it was standing room only.
Mr Blair was to use the speech to launch a six-month review of Britain's future energy policy, opening the way for the construction of nuclear power plants.
In the speech, he described "feverish rethinking" over energy policy around the world as countries attempt to meet obligations to reduce carbon emissions.
Although the Government remains officially neutral on the outcome of the review, environment campaigners say that Mr Blair has become convinced that building nuclear power stations is the only way to secure future energy needs.
The stance is a reversal of the Government's position of less than two years ago. A 2003 White Paper described nuclear power as an "unattractive option" and recommended promoting renewable sources, such as wind power, instead. Nuclear power met almost a quarter of the UK's electricity needs until recently, but that figure is dropping sharply.
Mr Blair told the CBI delegates that wind, wave and solar power will never match the capacity of the decommissioned coal-fired and nuclear plants, so energy police was "back on the agenda with a vengeance".
"Round the world you can hear the heavy sound of feverish rethinking. Energy prices have risen. Energy supply is under threat. Climate change is producing a sense of urgency...
"By around 2020 the UK is likely to have seen closure of coal and nuclear plants that together generate over 30 per cent of today’s electricity supply. Some of this will be replaced by renewables, but not all of it can."
Louise Edge, of Greenpeace, told Times Online that the protesters had planned to continue the protest for as long as a "co-ordinating safety officer" allowed them to. "The intention is to stop Tony Blair delivering his speech this morning," she said.
Ms Edge said that the Greenpeace protesters had bought their tickets to today's event through the CBI and had entered the building in business suits with their climbing gear wrapped around their bodies - passing through security checks including a scanner without any problems.
The protesters climbed down from the roof into the empty hall to be received by police officers at around 11 o'clock - long after Mr Blair had finished speaking.
The protest infuriated CBI members and officials, although Sir Digby pointed out that there were two official Greenpeace delegates at the conference, whose presence was welcome.
One CBI press officer joked that snipers might be the best solution. "There are plenty of munitions firms here - two shots to the head should do it," he said.
For full live coverage of the CBI Conference, click here
