It’s been all of an hour since the last row within the Conservative Party so it’s obviously time for a new one: Extinction Rebellion. Over the weekend mass protests broke out in central London by the usual rabble, though unusually Labour came out to condemn the extremist group yesterday and call for an immediate injunction “to put a stop to this disruption.” The Tories were slightly incredulous given Labour’s opposition to the bill set to ban such protests…

This morning Labour’s anti-Extinction Rebellion stance was slammed by none other than Ben Goldsmith, eco brother of Zac and chair of the Conservative Environment Network, who tweeted “Not a good look from @UKLabour… I’m with @ExtinctionR”. Awkwardly, Ben is also a non-executive director of DEFRA…

Asked for a response to Goldsmith’s tweet a government source replied that George Eustice “was very clear about his view yesterday – people have a right to protest but not when it causes disruption. Ben has commented as an individual, and this isn’t government policy.”

Other responses included one Red Wall Tory telling Guido his tweet “is going down about as spectacularly as the Hindenburg amongst Tory MPs”. The tweet’s unsurprisingly been deleted…

UPDATE: Now Labour’s hit back at Goldsmith, with Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed saying “This from a Conservative official is an insult to people facing misery trying to get to work. While the government continues to refuse to act, Labour has called for immediate injunctions to put a stop to this disruption.”