Piers Corbyn has disrupted a climate emergency debate on the fringes of the Labour conference, where his brother and former leader Jeremy Corbyn was appearing as a star panellist.
The 74-year-old began heckling when the chair of the event — hosted by The World Transformed in Brighton — opened up to questions from younger members of the audience and people of colour.
The request also prompted a second heckler to disrupt proceedings on Sunday, accusing event organisers of “assault” before he was promptly ejected and blocked from reaching the stage.
The older brother of the former Labour leader, Piers, was seen handing out leaflets entitled “Stop Jabbing Children”, which falsely accuses the chief medical officer Chris Whitty of using “fake data”, alongside a separate climate science denying pamphlet claiming: “Man-Made Climate Change Does Not Exist!”.
Another member of the panel received a rapturous applause, however, when she shot back at the hecklers, including Piers, saying: “You need to check what level of entitlement you have. You need to sit down and show some goddamn respect.”
“Alright, so we need to carry on comrades, because we have a massive task ahead of us,” she added.
Speaking after the end of the event, Piers, who was asked whether he could not just send his brother a text expressing his view, replied: “Well, he knows this, but he’s a prisoner of the trade unions going along with the Green New Deal”.
Addressing activists during the event, the ex-Labour leader, who appeared onstage alongside Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Zarah Sultana, said: “The climate emergency is here, now, and real. The biodiversity crisis is here, now, and real.
“The loss of habitat, the loss of wildlife, the loss of open space, the loss of insects, actually, is incredibly damaging to the natural world for all of us”
He went on: “The reality of climate change is there — it’s pretty obvious.
“Look at global weather patterns, look at global temperature rises, look at global sea level rises, look at increased flooding… and these 100-year storms are now coming up more and more frequently.”
