Attendees of centrist Tory think tank Onward’s under-35s series were served a bit more drama than they were expecting last night. As science minister Andrew Griffith was getting ready to talk about his brief and the “future of the science agenda” in a Westminster pub a climate protestor with an American accent sprung up and shouted about his “cosying up to the oil industry“. After about a minute of ranting the protestor was interrupted with: “We’ll do questions at the end” and was escorted out. Another then stood up to loud groans, started braying that Griffith “accepted lots of money from climate deniers”, and hit him with the killer line: “we don’t seem very scientific now do we“, before he too was ejected. Hilariously this sequence repeated itself another three times. Were there more protestors than attendees?

Eventually non-protestor attendees started singing the national anthem and the police were contacted regarding the trespassers. Guido notes Griffith has been diligently putting himself out there at youth-focussed Westminster events over the last few weeks. His fans say “Watch this space“. The field’s getting crowded…