Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook says climate breakdown could cause the UK to suffer food shortages in “just a few years”, which she predicts will lead to widespread rioting and fascism.

Dr Bradbook made the comments while being questioned by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee on whether the UK should aim to reach net zero emissions before 2050.

Extinction Rebellion, which staged demonstrations in a number of British cities earlier this year, believes the UK should be carbon zero by 2025 and described reaching net zero by 2050 as a “death sentence”.

Dr Bradbrook said: “Let the British people know they are going to walk into their supermarkets possibly in just a few years time ... and not have food on their shelves and that’s when the rioting starts and that’s when people panic and [this leads to] fascism.”

She said this worst-case scenario could happen with a “multi breadbasket failure” – a major yield reduction in the annual crop cycle caused by extreme weather conditions.

“We think this is an issue of national security and it needs to be treated as such and an appropriate response is a war time effort ... the onus on us is to move faster,” she said.

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“We’ve got really credible commentators talking about the collapse of civilisation in our children’s lifetime as a result of not taking emergency action,” said Dr Bradbrook.

Last week, John McDonnell said Labour is considering adopting radical plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 in line with demands for stronger action from activists.

Extinction Rebellion believes the government is currently failing to respond adequately to climate change. The group is campaigning for the government to set up random citizens’ assemblies to decide the country’s response to climate change.

An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson said Dr Bradbrook was expressing her own personal opinions to the BEIS Committee.

However, the spokesperson said: “It can be seen from Venezuela (and obviously many other examples through even recent history) that food shortages quickly lead to rioting, and that kind of unrest paves the way for societal breakdown

“So unless the government tells the truth and takes the climate crisis seriously, why should a rise in fascism not be feared?”

Meanwhile, a climate change protester was arrested after a human chain was formed outside the Scottish parliament.

Two protesters glued themselves to the ground, blocking the entrance and exit at Holyrood's car park.