National Trust staff and members protest links to Barclays

National Trust staff, volunteers and members are leading a week of protests at 40 of the conservation charity’s locations, calling for it to cease working with Barclays over its ties to the fossil fuel industry, according to a report in The Art Newspaper.

Beginning this week, the demonstrations include a parade at Longshaw Estate in the Peak District and a punting protest at Bathampton Meadows in Bath. Corfe Castle in Dorset, Winston Churchill’s family house in Kent, Ham House in west London, and the Runnymede site where the Magna Carta was signed will also host rallies.

A spokesperson for the National Trust said the organisation “fully understands the urgency needed to find solutions to the climate crisis and the strength of feeling about this among some of our supporters”.

“We welcomed Barclays's announcement that it will stop direct financing clients engaged in oil and gas expansion and require their clients in the energy sector to prepare climate transition plans. 

“It is critically important that we continue to engage with the banking sector to do more and faster to reduce financed emissions,” the spokesperson added.