Climate protesters rework Spice Girls song to disrupt Barclays AGM

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Barclays’ annual general meeting has been disrupted by climate activists condemning the bank’s role as one of Europe’s largest funders of fossil fuels – including a choir singing a Spice Girls hit with reworked lyrics.

Dozens of activists from groups including Fossil Free London and Extinction Rebellion UK began their action less than five minutes into the meeting where its chair, Nigel Higgins, was addressing shareholders at the QEII Centre in Westminster, central London.

The choir was the first to interrupt, with a rendition of the Spice Girls song Stop. Reworking the 90s classic’s lyrics, the group sang: “Stop right now, no more oil and gas, stop burning fossil fuels and end this madness … hey you, burning up the earth, gotta stop it now baby we have had enough … you dirty, dirty bank.”

Minutes after the bank’s chairman instructed security to remove the choral group, another protester stood up, yelling: “You are the worst fossil fuel funder in Europe.” Another addressed the chairman directly, shouting: “Nigel, don’t you have children … don’t you care about the planet? Don’t you care about your children?”

Barclays’ company secretary, Hannah Ellwood, was heard whispering to the chairman that the protesters should be made to leave, but others quickly took over in their own chorus of shouting.

Higgins tried to urge calm. “We are obviously very happy to hear opinions on what we do but it may be helpful to wait until the Q&A and have a two-way discussion.” However, after no reprieve came, he urged security to remove the remaining protesters. “I think as you said, enough is enough, I suspect a lot of people in the room agree with that.”

As Higgins went on to outline the bank’s own climate commitments, another protester shouted: “Bullshit.”

The chair said the bank had “significantly enhanced” its climate disclosures, and had listened to shareholder feedback after almost 20% voted last year against a climate strategy that campaigners said was too weak and contained a number of loopholes.

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The chair said Barclays had committed to ending thermal coal financing in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and EU countries by 2023, and had “substantially exited” the carbon-heavy oil sands sector, while increasing its financing for green energy.

However, Higgins said Barclays would not abandon the fossil fuel sector entirely. “It is our view – and I know that not everybody agrees – that the state of energy provision today, and the questions of energy poverty and energy security, mean that we cannot simply abandon this sector.”