EXTINCTION REBELLION ridiculed moves to class it as a criminal organisation by asking the Prime Minister if he considers his own father to be a “member of a violent gang.” 

Boris Johnson’s dad Stanley is a vocal supporter of the climate action group. 

The government is seeking to review the legal status of the group after activists delayed the deliveries of right-wing papers including the Sun and the Telegraph on Saturday morning. 

In response, XR posed the question to the PM today on social media: “Boris Johnson, you slander XR as ‘organised crime,’ ‘saboteurs of democracy,’ etc. Might we ask, is this what you think of your own father, seen here w/ an XR pin?

“Surely he wouldn’t be member of a ‘violent gang’?”

Mr Johnson’s father spoke at a rally hosted by the group in October last year with an XR badge pinned to his jacket. 

It comes as a report by the Institute for Government found that ministers are “off track” in reaching carbon net zero by 2050, a target enshrined in law.

Shadow climate-change minister Matthew Pennycook said: “Until this government gives emissions reduction the status it requires and acts accordingly, the UK is destined to remain off track for the net-zero target legislated for just over a year ago.”