Mark Field suspended after Mansion House incident

Number 10 has confirmed that Mark Field has been suspended from his position as a Foreign Office minister, after he used force to remove a climate protestor from a banking event at Mansion House last night.

Video footage of the incident showed Field grabbing a female Greenpeace protestor before escorting her from the building. The activists, dressed in red ballgowns, had gatecrashed a speech by the Chancellor Philip Hammond at a City of London event, to protest against climate change.

In this longer version of the video, you can see the woman apparently posing no immediate threat as she passes behind Mark Field. He marches her out of the room by her neck. I wasn’t there, so I can’t say she didn’t pose a risk, but it looks heavy handed. pic.twitter.com/zX2BtcPW4t

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) June 20, 2019

Field has since apologised for the incident and referred himself to the Cabinet Office, saying:

‘I deeply regret this episode and unreservedly apologise to the lady concerned for grabbing her but in the current climate I felt the need to act decisively to close down the threat to the safety of those present.