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UPPER CRUSTY
M25 eco hypocrite has £1m property empire… and poor insulation
AN eco-protester who blocked the M25 four times has been branded a “hippy-crit” for owning a multi-million pound property empire packed with poor insulation.
Joshua Smith, 28, yesterday posed in a hard hat and held a placard message as he led an Insulate Britain march in London.
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Smith, who claimed to be a brickie, was pictured among activists gluing their hands to tarmac in rush-hour traffic on Monday.
He also led a march on the Home Office yesterday, with a placard which read: “Arrested 4 times because I am mourning for life on Earth.”
But The Sun can reveal Smith is heir to a £2million property empire and he is sitting on a personal property portfolio worth £1million.
At least six homes owned by his firm in Oldham have E or F energy efficiency ratings — meaning they have little or no insulation and pump out tons of extra carbon dioxide.
And the revelation has infuriated many, with Tom Watson, 37 — who was hauled back by cops from a confrontation with Insulate Britain protesters on the M25 this week - blasting Smith.
The self-employed insulation-fitter said: “It’s sickening double-standards. It shows what these people are really like. It’s the preaching that gets you.
“They’re trying to tell us what to do and haven’t got their own houses in order. That’s why ordinary people don’t support their tactics. We all want to save the environment, but screwing over normal families is not the way to do it.”
Meanwhile, Tory MP Lee Anderson branded Smith a “hippy-crit”.
He said: “He needs to glue or chain himself to one of his dad’s houses rather sticking himself to motorways.
“They are total hippy-crits, with too much money, and no understanding of the real world.”
Tory MP Alex Stafford, a campaigner for green-hydrogen tech, said: “These protests have disrupted families, seen people miss hospital appointments, and have a knock-on cost to taxpayers.
“If he is sitting pretty it smacks of hypocrisy of the highest order.”
Tory Jonathan Gullis added: “The selfish and self-indulgent so called ‘protesters’ are nothing more than metropolitan elites trying to ram their extremist views down the throats of ordinary people.”
'HIPPY-CRIT'
Smith owns two and three-bed rental properties. The average cost of upgrading the insulation of these would be £1,300. For £6,500 he could save the emission of 18.5 tons of CO2 every year.
Dad David Smith, 66, has more than 30 properties including more builds rated D or lower — which pump tons of extra CO2 into the atmosphere.
The Sun was unable to reach him for comment last night.
Yesterday his son was in London to demand talks with Home Secretary Priti Patel. He was seen at a demo outside the Home Office from 2.30pm, wearing a hard hat with the label “Insulate Britain”.
Protesters then marched on to nearby Millbank Gardens where Smith Jnr grabbed a microphone to boast over his arrest last Friday.
He told crowds he “spent 30-40 minutes” lecturing cops about “the science of the climate breakdown”.
Pictures show he was at four of the first five protests.
When The Sun confronted Smith, he admitted owning at least six properties and confessed insulation was “not great”.
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Claiming he was saving lives by sitting in the road, he said: “I don’t think I’m a hypocrite. We’re asking for millions of properties to be insulated. The picture is a lot bigger than just me. No one in my houses are freezing.”
He said he was “not too sure” about his properties’ EPC ratings, adding: “I’ll have them insulated.
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The Sun Says
NO wonder eco wrecker Joshua Smith has so many idle hours spare to inflict suffering on distressed M25 commuters.
He is not the humble bricklayer falsely described by Insulate Britain.
He is a property millionaire and heir with a clutch of buy-to-lets which — surprise, surprise — have little or no insulation.
Which gives him something else in common with the group’s spokesman Liam Norton, an ill-tempered knucklehead, aside from their fetish for gluing themselves to things. Norton hasn’t bothered insulating his house either.
Two strange men, then, apparently obsessed with lagging as long as someone else pays. Supposedly prepared to risk their safety and liberty for insulation, but not to install any themselves.
The truth, of course, is that both far prefer anarchic anti-Tory protest to doing anything useful for the green cause.
It is absurd it took the Government so long to secure an injunction. But we dearly hope these deranged oddballs end up in a cell once they breach it.
Forget lagging. That’ll need padding.
Kwasi Kwarteng says M25 fast lane protest by Insulate Britain eco-warriors is 'completely unacceptable'
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