Protesters arrested after climbing onto roof of Rishi Sunak's Yorkshire mansion

Four Greenpeace protesters who climbed onto the roof of Rishi Sunak's Yorkshire mansion have been arrested by police.

The group of campaigners draped the prime minister’s grade II-listed home with an oil-black fabric to “drive home the dangerous consequences” of fossil fuel drilling.

North Yorkshire Police said officers were “managing the situation” after being called to the family home in Kirby Sigston, near Northallerton, at about 8am on Thursday. Mr Sunak, his wife and children are currently on holiday in California.

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It comes after Mr Sunak, MP for nearby Richmond, this week announced plans to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves by granting more than 100 new licences for extraction in the North Sea. He also hinted that the UK’s largest untapped oil field, Rosebank, to the west of Shetland, could be approved despite fierce opposition from environmental campaigners.

After scaling the house with ladders, the four activists unfurled sheets of black fabric and brandished a banner demanding “no new oil” as they urged Mr Sunak to “be a climate leader, not a climate arsonist”.

The group climbed down from the roof shortly after 1pm. Officers were seen talking to the four people before they were loaded into the back of police vans. A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman at the scene confirmed that the they had been arrested.

Earlier in the day, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who is standing in for Mr Sunak during his holiday, told the protesters to “stop the stupid stunts”.

On the ground, Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Philip Evans defended the action at the Prime Minister’s family home. He told the PA news agency the