DENNIS SKINNER insisted tday that Labour must topple the fracking industry by strengthening its opposition to it.

Speaking at a protest at Westminster organised by his constituency party, the Bolsover MP made a rallying cry against energy firms drilling for shale gas and its damaging effects on health and the environment.

He condemned the promotion of fracking by some MPs, Tories in particular, who, he warned, “come in all shapes and sizes.”

Attendees cheered as Mr Skinner told of Bolsover’s neighbouring village Calow and its victory over Cuadrilla when Derbyshire County Council turned down the company’s fracking application.

He referred to North East Derbyshire’s previous Labour MP Natascha Engel, who now works as a fracking commissioner for the Conservative government after being unseated by a Tory in 2017.

He said: “Tories will support Ineos and Cuadrilla fracking until the day they pass away … We won that battle in Calow and it was something I never really expected.

“Bolsover Labour Party have been on the ball every time. It’s time you did what Bolsover did and fight against it, wherever you’re from.”

Mr Skinner also had a few words for the richest man in Britain, Jim Ratcliffe, billionaire CEO of fracking firm Ineos, who chose to move to Monaco last month, reportedly to save £4 billion in tax.

He told the crowd: “We have got to make sure that Labour’s policy is more important than Jim Ratcliffe and his money, and bring him to his knees. That is the Skinner message.”

Today’s protest came as environmental and human rights campaigners took their fight against Ineos and an anti-protest injunction described as draconian that was granted to the company to the Court of Appeal.

In November 2017 a High Court judge ruled that a previously granted order prohibiting unlawful activities such as trespass or obstruction by “persons unknown” at the firm’s shale gas sites could continue.

Energy companies Cuadrilla, UK Oil and Gas, Angus Energy and IGas have all since obtained similar injunctions against protesters, according to campaigner Joe Corre.

Climate activist Eddie Thornton told the Star at Parliament Square that “it is time that adults follow the lead” of the schoolchildren who recently went on strike to protest against the destruction of the environment.

The youngsters will be protesting again as part of a global movement on March 15. He also urged activists to join a protest organised by environmental group Extinction Rebellion on April 15.