Postlethwaite may return OBE over Kingsnorth

The actor Pete Postlethwaite has threatened to hand back his OBE if the government gives the go-ahead to the controversial Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent.

Speaking after the London premiere of his new climate change movie, The Age of Stupid, in Leicester Square, the Oscar-nominated Postlethwaite said: "We tried to stop Tony Blair going to war in Iraq. But this time we're not having it."

The government is expected this autumn to announce plans to allow the energy company E.ON to build the plant. The decision had been delayed after the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, ordered a review of coal energy policy because of opposition by environmental groups.

After the screening, Postlethwaite helped launch the Not Stupid campaign which aims to turn 250 million of the film's viewers into activists.

Postlethwaite signed a pledge card that said: "Dear Ed Miliband, if you commission a new dirty coal power station at Kingsnorth - thereby increasing our emissions when we should be massively decreasing them - then you are clearly unfit to represent the people of Britain at the Copenhagen climate change summit."

He then pledged that he would give back his OBE, which he was awarded in 2004. "I can't be an officer of the realm if Kingsnorth goes ahead," he said.

Miliband, who was in the audience, said: "I hear what people like Pete Postlethwaite are saying and we can't build any unabated coal-fired power stations. But we can't do it with renewable energy alone."