CHRIS Packham clashed with a panellist on this morning’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show over climate change. 

The environmental campaigner, who was recently cleared to take on the UK Government in court over decisions to reverse some of its green policies, was among the panellists on the BBC’s flagship political programme.

Also appearing on the programme was Luke Johnson, the former chairman of both PizzaExpress and Channel 4.

He has previously expressed sceptical views about climate change, and once shared a link to an article on Twitter/X which claimed it was a “doomsday cult that threatens us all”.

The businessman was asked specifically about the actions of Just Stop Oil, which has taken action in a number of ways across the UK recently as part of protests about climate change.

Recently, five protesters were convicted of aggravated trespass after they disrupted a performance of Les Misérables in London’s West End while they have also previously glued themselves to major road.

READ MORE: Watch Chris Packham's hilarious response to Matt Hancock on Laura Kuenssberg show

Johnson said: “I’m all for free speech and civilised demonstrations, but I think that ordinary people want to be able to drive a car and fly on holiday.

“And I think that the hysterical doomsayers who have been for decades, you know Al Gore and so forth, predicting the end of the world, an existential crisis.

“They’re shooting themselves in the foot because ordinary people will not vote I believe to be poorer and colder.

“And the fact of the matter is that it’s easy for the establishment, many of whom have got a vested interest in the whole climate campaign, to think that they’ll just have to put up with cold homes and not flying away on holiday and not being able to drive their cars.”

Packham immediately interjected to ask about the “ordinary people of Dubai” which was hit by unprecedented flooding this week.

“What about the ordinary people of the global south that has just suffered the hottest year ever, where their crops have failed, there have been extensive wildfires,” Packham said.

Johnson interrupted to ask where the evidence for any of this was, to which the environmental campaigner replied: “Well it doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic, which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry, it comes from actually something called science.”

The National:

A number of people took to social media to praise Packham, with SNP MP Pete Wishart tweeting: “Get Chris Packham on every week…”

Elsewhere Gerry Hassan praised Packham for taking on “climate change denialism” and also hit out at Kuenssberg for failing to ask Johnson anything about his views on this.