Eight climate campaigners disrupted a networking lunch for business leaders in Folkestone where Kwasi Kwarteng was invited as a special guest.

The activists, members of the campaign groups Green New Deal Rising and Stop Cambo, confronted Kwasi Kwarteng over rising energy costs.

They called for the Business Secretary‘s support for a windfall tax and urged him to put an end to new oil fields.

Hannah Martin, from Green New Deal Rising, who was part of the protest said: “Kwasi Kwarteng is lying to the UK public.

“He is trying to make us believe that an expansion in oil and gas will keep us safe from poverty, when it locks us into an unaffordable energy system and destroys our future.”

Lauren MacDonald, from Stop Cambo, said: “What we urgently need is a more affordable, less polluting energy supply, not more oil and gas.

“Kwasi Kwarteng has publicly admitted that new North Sea production won’t lower our energy bills, but more renewables and properly insulated homes will.”

In response to this protest, the Business Secretary wrote on Twitter: “Shout and scream all you like, but I’m not going to put Britain’s energy security at risk by shutting off domestic oil and gas production.

“We will need oil and gas for decades to come. Either we source more of what we need from the North Sea, or import more from abroad.”

Shout and scream all you like, but I’m not going to put Britain’s energy security at risk by shutting off domestic oil and gas production.

We will need oil and gas for decades to come. Either we source more of what we need from the North Sea, or import more from abroad. https://t.co/LvnnaBybny

— Kwasi Kwarteng (@KwasiKwarteng) May 13, 2022