An Insulate Britain protester arrested for blocking the M25 is the wife of a Transport for London director, it has been revealed. 

The climate change activist group has shot to notoriety following a string of disruptive blockades on motorways and the streets of London.

Cathy Eastburn, 54, a Cambridge University philosophy graduate participation in multiple demonstrations has come in for particular scrutiny as she is married to Benedict Plowden, 58, a public transport boss.

Eastburn has been arrested several times in the past for her activities with Extinction Rebellion and during M25 blockades as part of fringe group Insulate Britain.

In December 2019 she avoided jail for gluing herself to a Docklands Light Railway train in Canary Wharf instead she was handed a 12-month conditional.

The couple has also been accused of “harbouring” other eco-extremist in their South London home.

Greg Smith, a Conservative MP and member of the transport select committee, told the Times: “Insulate Britain has caused untold misery for individuals and businesses over recent weeks. It is an absolute kick in the teeth that someone senior in TfL — an arm of the British state — has been harbouring them in their house. This is unacceptable.”

Despite being arrested four times in 9 days Eastburn was released without charge without being interviewed each time.

She told the Sunday Times she thought her actions were “proportionate” because forcing drivers to sit in traffic for hours was “incomparable to the kind of chaos that’s coming down the track – major flooding and major food shortages”.