Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook has been pictured buying plastic-packaged food that had been flown thousands of miles and loading it into her polluting diesel car.
The sight of the eco-zealot stocking up on foreign food before loading it into her gas-guzzling diesel car infuriated shoppers in Waitrose.
They were fuming that Bradbrook was not practising what she preaches to her thousands of followers, who have regularly brought Britain to a standstill by blocking roads.
Bradbrook, who set up XR with a former boyfriend in 2018, was pictured grabbing Vietnamese tea, Chilean grapes and fruit from Spain, Cyprus and Italy.
Her shopping items, which came from three different continents and caused widespread controversy, were bound in plastic, nylon and polythene.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook has been picture buying plastic-packaged food that had been flown thousands of miles and loading it into her polluting diesel car
Her shopping items, which came from three different continents and caused widespread controversy, were bound in plastic, nylon and polythene
The sight of the eco-zealot stocking up with foreign food before loading it into her gas-guzzling diesel car infuriated shoppers in Waitrose
The activist also walked out with Quorn vegan chicken free slices and Duchy Organic chicken wings – both covered with non-recyclable film.
As Extinction Rebellion begins four days of protests across London today – dubbed ‘The Big One’ – Gail Bradbrook, 50, was caught at a Waitrose in Stroud, Gloucestershire, driving her 1.5-litre diesel Citroen car.
Her neighbours have joined the chorus of voices branding the eco zealot a ‘hypocrite’.
One, retired British Army corporal David Wickings, said: ‘With her, it’s always a case of – Do as I say, not as I do. I can’t stand the woman. She’s a total hypocrite.’
Mr Wickings, 81, a former engineer with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), said locals in the Stroud street where Ms Bradbrook lived until recently metaphorically ‘put the flags out’ when she moved out.
She upset many locals with her ‘laissez faire’ gardening regime, he said. ‘Her idea of gardening was to do absolutely nothing. As a result, her hedge at the front was spilling out into the street. It looked a complete mess. Most people around here were delighted when moved.
Bradbrook speaks as she kneels atop the doorway into the Department for Transport in 2019. Extinction Rebellion is plotting a huge protest in London from today until Monday, with as many as 30,000 supporters coming to the capital
Gail Bradbrook was pictured in high-brow Waitrose buying goods from more than 7,000 miles across the globe, including Vietnamese tea and Chilean grapes
‘You’d walk by her garden and expect to hear lions and tigers roaring because it was so wild. I didn’t like her at all and never spoke to her if I could help it.’
Another neighbour, 75-year-old James Neale, said his career spent working in the plastics industry put him at odds with her environmentally. ‘We never discussed it, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have approved, even though I actually believe all plastic containers should be outlawed. I didn’t want to get involved in a row with her about it though.
‘She’s an absolute hypocrite for going out and buying exactly those products – then driving them home in a diesel car.
‘I was glad to see the back of her when she left. I went over to say hello and welcome her to the area when she moved in, but we didn’t speak much after that.
‘I couldn’t stand the sight of her overgrown garden. It was an eyesore, so I was glad to see her go and the new occupants keeping it tidy.
‘As for the environment, I’m all in favour of looking after the planet, but what I really object to is that her group bring the roads to a standstill and that stops people getting to hospital in an emergency and kids getting to school. That can’t be right.’
Mr Neale said he worked as a control manager at a plastics firm that made bin liners.
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I’m glad she’s been exposed as the hypocrite she is. It’s shameful that she preaches to everyone about the environment, causes chaos, then goes out and does her bit to help destroy the planet she claims to care so much about.’
The owner of the semi-detached house in which Ms Bradbrook lived refused to comment.
An XR spokeswoman told MailOnline: ‘She is a hypocrite, but we are all hypocrites – we have no choice and buy what we can afford.’
However, she insisted it did not damage their cause, adding: ‘Gail is a working mother, she doesn’t earn a lot of money and she has her family to feed. The majority of our food comes from abroad, it’s not easy to escape that, especially for someone who has children and does not have much money.
‘Everyone has to do that whether you are an environmentalist or not. Gail is a normal human being, we are all hypocrites in this society – that is what we are protesting about.’
Bradbrook also drove to the supermarket, in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in this diesel 1.5-litre car, pictured parked across a disabled parking space outside her home in 2021
Her diesel car has stickers in its window calling for an end to ‘ecocide’- yet she uses the vehicle to carry shopping from Waitrose that was flown in from around the globe and packed in plastic
The spokeswoman pointed out that Bradbrook, a mother-of-two, has her own vegetable patch at her home in Stroud.
The XR spokeswoman said the Waitrose customers who took snaps of Bradbrook’s midweek shop were guilty of ‘disgusting behaviour’.
Bradbrook co-founded the environmental group with ex-boyfriend Simon Bramwell.
As part of its core three demands, Extinction Rebellion says: ‘Every part of society must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’
An onlooker said: ‘Buying fruit flown halfway round the world in non-recyclable packaging then driving home in a diesel motor — what a towering hypocrite.
‘She was doing everything Extinction Rebellion tells us not to do,’ the onlooker told The Sun.
‘But at least she wasn’t held up on her way home by idiots who glued themselves to the road.’
A fifth of all food-related greenhouse gas emissions come from transporting edible products across the planet. These are even higher for fruit and vegetables that are out of season – and need to be refrigerated as they are brought over.
Extinction Rebellion is plotting a huge protest in London from today until Monday, with as many as 30,000 supporters coming to the capital.
XR’s planned four-day protest is supported by more than 200 organisations, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the PCS union.
Fifty-year-old activist Bradbrook co-founded Extinction Rebellion in 2018 with her ex-boyfriend Simon Bramwell
Her Waitrose shopping, which came from three different continents, was wrapped in plastic, nylon and polythene
It comes just a week after militant animal rights activists Animal Rising stormed the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool posing as racegoers, delaying the race as they were tackled by officials and officers.
On Monday, Just Stop Oil activists Edred Whittingham, 25, and Margaret Reid, 52, forced a World Championship snooker match at The Crucible to be cancelled after he leapt on a table and threw orange powder all over it. She failed to pull the same stunt after the referee stopped her.
Bradbrook hit headlines in 2019 after causing £27,500 of damage to the Department for Transport building when she smashed a bullet-proof window with a chisel and hammer.
Prosecutor Katie Bryan told Isleworth Crown Court: ‘In her police interview the defendant said she acted to draw attention to the cause and compared her actions to the suffragettes in smashing windows to get the vote.’
Bradbrook is the director of the company Compassionate Revolution, which had an unrestricted income of £1,410,230 in the year ending June 30, 2022. It was incorporated in 2015 and had a total unrestricted expenditure of £1,342,085 in that time.
She caused anger in 2021 after neighbours moaned about her ‘eyesore’ house and overgrown garden.
And in the same year she was branded a hypocrite after she admitted to driving a diesel car – saying she could not afford an electric vehicle.
Bradbrook is the director of the company Compassionate Revolution, which had an unrestricted income of £1,410,230 in the year ending June 30, 2022
She said she needed the car to take her children to football and rugby fixtures because her home was not served by buses on Sundays.
In an angry interview with TalkRadio presenter Cristo Foufas he branded her a ‘hypocrite’ and she responded by calling him a ‘boring interviewer’.
Molecular biologist Dr Bradbrook was previously criticised for flying 11,000 miles to Costa Rica in 2016 to stay at the £2,500 luxury New Life Iboga resort.
She later claimed that she flew to the island because of a health issue which could not be dealt with in the UK.
The trip had a carbon footprint of 2.6 tons – a quarter of the amount the average Briton emits in a whole year.
Despite its four-day protest, Extinction Rebellion has agreed to stop protesters from disrupting the London Marathon on Sunday after organisers struck a deal with the eco-zealots to help guard the race from their affiliates at Just Stop Oil.
The surprise arrangement came after event director Hugh Brasher sat down in a meeting with XR yesterday in which the group was ‘very clear’ on wanting to ‘engage the general public in a different way’.
However, XR is plotting a huge protest in the centre of the capital on Sunday, and marathon organisers fear up to 30,000 of its supporters could be in the Westminster area for the ‘final stretch’ of the race.
XR’s programme for the protests initially stated that ‘the final stretch of the London Marathon will intersect with’ its rally, ‘providing an opportunity to connect with and support those running in the marathon for causes amplified by the climate crisis’.
But now Mr Brasher said the group are looking to ‘protect what is one of the crown jewels of British sport’.
Extinction Rebellion has agreed to stop protesters from disrupting the London Marathon after organisers struck a deal with the eco-zealots to help guard the race from their allies at Just Stop Oil
The eco-mob is plotting a huge protest in the capital from today until Monday, with organisers fearing that as many as 30,000 supporters could be in the Westminster area for the ‘final stretch’ of the London Marathon on Sunday
The event director told The Guardian on Wednesday: ‘They will be uniquely asking all their participants to help guard the TCS London Marathon. To do something that is quite unique in their history – to protect what is one of the crown jewels of British sport.
‘It is one of the crown jewels because the every-day person is competing and running those 26.2 miles at the time as Eilish McColgan, Sir Mo Farah, and when the greatest women’s endurance race in the history of our sport is taking place.’
‘The London Marathon is unique,’ he added. ‘We run for clean air. That is so important in what we do. The environment is part of our DNA. And Extinction Rebellion has been very, very clear that they are in a new phase of wanting to engage the general public in a different way.’
London Marathon organisers had urged spectators to watch the iconic race from home amid fears of disruption.
Mr Brasher had advised people to ‘watch the marathon from other locations and avoid the Parliament Square area on the day’, as the square and ‘immediate surrounding area’ will be ‘very busy’.
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps has condemned XR for risking ‘creating massive disruption’ to the marathon.
Just Stop Oil, which disrupted the World Snooker Championship on Monday, would not say whether it planned to target the race.
Mr Brasher admitted that organisers had fears other groups were looking to cause similar disruption to that seen at the Grand National and World Snooker Championship this past week.
London Marathon race director Hugh Brasher met Extinction Rebellion on Wednesday
Mr Brasher admitted organisers had fears other groups wanted to cause similar disruption to that seen at the Grand National and World Snooker Championship this week, above
Militant animal rights activists Animal Rising stormed Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool after posing as racegoers, delaying the race as they were tackled by officials and officers
Militant animal rights activists Animal Rising stormed Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool after posing as racegoers, delaying the race as they were tackled by officials and officers.
And Just Stop Oil activists Edred Whittingham, 25, and Margaret Reid, 52, forced a World Championship snooker match at The Crucible to be cancelled after he leaped on a table and threw orange powder all over it. She failed to pull the same stunt after the referee stopped her.
Mr Brasher said he wanted to speak to Just Stop Oil, which intervened in last year’s race, in the next 24 hours to urge the group ‘not to stop a race that raised £58.4million for charity last year’.
He explained that he was reaching out to the group after XR provided the contacts to speak to, adding that it ‘goes back to working together’ and will ask for help to protect the race ‘because of the good it does in society’.
XR co-founder Clare Farrell insisted the group has ‘no intention to disrupt their event’.
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