By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 08:58 BST, 22 April 2019 | Updated: 08:59 BST, 22 April 2019
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Boris Johnson has refused to condemn climate change protesters who shut down central London but said they should target China not Britain
Boris Johnson today supported the climate change activists who have paralysed London for a week - but urged them to go to China next.
The Tory MP, who was Mayor of the capital before Sadiq Khan, said that the Extinction Rebellion activists are right to be worried about the future of the planet.
Mr Johnson, who is the bookies' favourite to replace Theresa May as Tory leader, said in 2013 that he had an 'open mind' about the scale of global warming after heavy snow swept across Britain.
But today he said: 'I cannot find it in my heart — no matter how smug, irritating and disruptive they may be — to condemn these protesters today. They are right to draw attention to the loss of habitat, and the extinction of species. They are also right to sound the alarm about all manner of man-made pollution, including CO2'.
He added: 'Surely this is the time for the protesters to take their pink boat to Tiananmen Square, and lecture them in the way they have been lecturing us'.
He wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he was 'not in favour of paralysing public transport in the greatest city on earth' and said the UK was a 'world leader in reducing the greenhouse gases that are associated with climate change'.
He wrote: 'I am not saying for one second that the climate
