UK: Climate activists occupy Gordon Ramsay restaurant

LONDON: Climate change activists occupied celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's three-star Michelin restaurant in London on Saturday evening, demanding an overhaul of the UK's food system.

Fourteen members of "Animal Rebellion" entered Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, southwest London, at around 6:00pm (1800 GMT) and sat at tables reserved for guests.

They held mocked-up menus detailing the environmental costs of dishes offered in the restaurant, and left when the establishment closed a few hours later.

"This luxury restaurant epitomises the inequality we face in the UK right now, as well as denial of the severity of the Climate Crisis," the group tweeted.

"We need a dramatic shift in the UK's food system, and we all need to take responsibility for that," it added.

A spokesperson for Restaurant Gordon Ramsay said: "Everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs.

"However, to force your way into a restaurant, disturbing hard-working staff going about their jobs and ruining the evening of guests who have waited months for their reservations is incredibly inappropriate and deeply disrespectful."

Activist Lucia Alexander called for a "transition to a plant-based food system".

"A plant-based food system requires 75 per cent less farmland to grow food, allowing us to feed millions of additional people without the reliance on exploitative and inefficient animal farming industries."

London's Metropolitan Police said they had been called to the restaurant, but that no arrests were made.

"Officers attended. The restaurant was closed, and the protesters left. There were no arrests," said a spokesman.