Climate change activists have stormed Chancellor Philip Hammond’s speech to the annual Bankers and Merchants Dinner at Mansion House.

Video footage captured the moment several women wearing red dresses were seen being ushered out of the banquet hall as attendees in black tie looked on.

The women were all wearing sashes emblazoned with the word ‘climate’.

Mr Hammond left the room while security dealt with the protesters, who were among 40 volunteers who ‘gatecrashed’ the event, according to Greenpeace.

In a statement after the protest, in which people were heard shouting ‘this is an emergency’, Greenpeace said: ‘The Treasury has tried to water down government action on climate change and the people in the room for Philip Hammond’s Mansion House speech have been funding it.

‘But we are in a climate emergency – business as usual is no longer an option. That’s why we interrupted the speech tonight’.

Returning to the stage, Mr Hammond said: ‘The irony is that this is Government that has just led the world by committing to a zero carbon economy by 2050.’

The comment was met with applause.

Later in his speech, the Chancellor said he couldn’t imagine a Tory and Unionst-led government, ‘actively pursuing a no-deal Brexit willing to risk the union and our economic prosperity’.

He said: ‘I will fight, and fight again, to remake the case for pragmatism and, yes, for compromise in our politics – to ensure an outcome that protects the union and the prosperity of the United Kingdom.’

More to follow.

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