Wycombe MP Steve Baker has been accused of "spreading fake news" after resharing a tweet which turned out to be incorrect.

Mr Baker has refused calls to apologise for sharing someone else's post to his 72,000 followers which appeared to suggest that Extinction Rebellion (XR) protesters were using a diesel generator at their Hyde Park camp site during last week's demonstrations.

The original post, accompanied by a picture, said: "The #ExtinctionRebellion camp site in Hyde Park has this nifty little diesel generator hooked up and several patio heaters going full blast in the bar area".

Mr Baker shared the post, adding: "Sounds nice".

Toni Brodelle, who will go up against Mr Baker at the next general election as the Liberal Democrats candidate for Wycombe, urged him to "apologise and retract" after pointing out the inaccuracies with the post.

She said: "It is both responsible and wise to check sources before sharing, particularly when in public office. If you look closely, there is a US number on this generator and this image was taken from the Caterpillar Inc website."

In response, Mr Baker told the Bucks Free Press he had "not the slightest intention of apologising for someone else's tweet", which he said was "fair satirical comment on the hypocrisy of a group currently causing considerable environmental damage in London, not least to our Royal Parks".

Bucks Free Press:

The tweet

He said on Thursday: "In addition to littering our streets and green spaces, the atmosphere will have suffered as a result of widespread increased traffic jams and diversions caused by XR protestors.

"Only this afternoon, I saw for myself the considerable unlawful encampment on Green Park and the police moving in.

"In the short term, XR have incurred enormous cost to the public for policing and other emergency services.

"In the longer term, the ferocious anti-capitalism of XR would effectively return the world to a pre-industrial age in which millions would starve or die of disease. The world’s poor would be hit hardest.

"However, since 1990 the UK has cuts emissions by 42 per cent whilst the economy has grown by more than two thirds.

"My message to XR and local people concerned about the environment is that the UK is already taking urgent, world leading action on climate change, without the damage, waste and inconvenience of the radical XR protest."

Climate change protesters have this week been dealt a blow after a new rule was imposed banning the assembly of more than two people linked to the Extinction Rebellion action in the capital.

It comes after more than a week of chaos in the city in protest against climate change.

Nine people from the area - one from Hughenden, two from Beaconsfield, five from Marlow and one from Maidenhead - were among those arrested by Met Police officers in London last week.

Sixty-five activists from the Bucks and Berkshire area joined the protests, with many from the Marlow branch of XR.

Alice, 27, from Marlow, a freelance facilitator for disabled people and a former journalist, said while she had not been arrested herself, she had seen it happening to people she knew while joining in the protests at Whitehall.

She said: "I find the biodiversity loss utterly shocking. Every single day we lose 200 species of mammals, insects, birds and amphibians to extinction – that’s 1,000 times more than ‘normal’, according to scientists. And that for me is a massive warning signal.

“It’s important we stay with this movement and go beyond our comfort zone, because if we are not willing to be uncomfortable for little while, a lot more people will soon become a lot more uncomfortable.”