Blackpool students head to Parliament for climate change lobby with MPS

The six students from St Mary’s Academy traveled to London to take part in The Time Is Now lobby with CAFOD

The students, aged 12 to 14, were joined by 12,000 people around the Houses of Parliament

They were supported by Blackpool MPs Gordon Marsden and Paul Maynard at the event.

Mr Marsden, MP for Blackpool South, said: “It was great to have the students from St Mary’s down in Parliament to send a loud and clear message to the Government to act on climate change.

“Young campaigners like Greta Thurberg have inspired our younger generation and put a very important spotlight on this urgent crisis. If we don’t act now, the damage being done to our environment will be irreversible.”

Mr Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, said: “A real pleasure to welcome so many young people from St Mary’s Catholic Academy to Westminster and to talk to them about what it entails to be an MP.

“I hope they found their day in Parliament enlightening and rewarding.

Christine Smith, chaplaincy team leader, led the group from St Mary’s. She said “It was fantastic to be able to take some of our students along to this fantastic event, to meet their MPs and engage with politics in a meaningful way at an early age.

“ Climate change is such an important issue to our young people, as they are acutely aware that they will be inheriting the consequences of pollution and they want to see change starting now.

“Young people have got a bad press recently with school strikes about this issue, so it is good to have the spotlight on them in a positive way. I am proud of them for engaging so well and making their voices heard by those who represent them in Parliament.”