Environmental and anti-poverty activists got together yesterday to protest at energy giant Centrica’s AGM.

A hundred people rattled the meeting of shareholders in British Gas’s parent company by banging pots and pans at the entrance of the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London.

Demonstrators railed loudly against rising bills that are making “heat and eat” increasingly difficult for the poorest in Britain.

“What British Gas is doing is putting profit before people,” said Tim Jennings of youth engagement NGO Logical Change.

The protest was orgainised by the Fuel Poverty Action campaign, alongside radical organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts and UK Uncut.

People of all ages and backgrounds chanted anti-fracking slogans and for affordable energy prices.

When speakers mentioned British Gas’s £600 million profit or the alleged five million households in hock to one of the big six energy suppliers, the mass booed and heckled.

“Young people are going hungry because of British Gas and their predatory nature,” added Mr Jennings.

According to Logical Change, two out of five of those between the ages of 18 and 25 in Britain today have had to skip meals to pay their gas and electricity costs.

Fuel Poverty Action’s Ruth London retold the stories of those who were forced to install prepayment meters in their homes after falling into arrears with British Gas.

Most are left to live in cold houses and unable to cook their meals due to cuts to their benefits and rocketing energy prices.

Ms London added that last year activists went into the Centrica AGM and told British Gas management about the 8,000 people who had died of fuel poverty in the previous 12 months.

“This year it went up to 10,000 deaths,” she shouted.

The protest comes less than a month after a British Gas whistleblower told the press about the staff bonuses to those signing charities and small business up to the most expensive tariffs.

“We are the people who are going to say this is going to change,” said Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

The crowd then ripped up energy bills and symbolically threw the thousands shreds of paper into the air.