A further £600,000 was spent on deploying vehicles, while the overtime cost was £300,000.

Four other forces provided figures totalling more than £300,000, but only included overtime bills, meaning the actual cost of policing protests in their areas was considerably higher.

In comparison, the cost of policing Extinction Rebellion protests throughout the summer was estimated at around £18 million, while two days of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 cost around £1.4 million.

Anti-vaccine and anti-mask protests that took place last year also cost the taxpayer more than £1 million.

Insulate Britain, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, wants the Government to insulate all UK homes by 2030 to cut carbon emissions.

It repeatedly blocked major roads between September and November, causing long traffic jams.

Activists often glued their hands to the road or each other to make it harder to remove them.

The group frequently targeted the M25, the UK’s busiest motorway, but also blocked roads in Manchester, Birmingham, London and the Port of Dover in Kent.

At one stage police officers were deployed at every junction of the M25 in an attempt to stop the group.

Mr Shapps said: “I am appalled at the amount of time and public money that’s been spent policing the selfish actions of Insulate Britain.