Dan Hooper, the environmental activist known as Swampy, and his fellow tunneller Satchel emerged from an underground protest against the controversial HS2 project on Saturday morning after resisting eviction for 35 days. Hooper, 48, and Satchel were the last two of five environmental protesters who built and occupied a tunnel on the site of HS2 work in Wendover, Buckinghamshire. A protest camp on the site was established almost two years ago and an elaborate tunnel complex with two structures above ground – a tower and a cage – made the eviction a challenging one for the national eviction team, which finally secured the tunnel. Three other activists, Took, Flem and Log, left the tunnel four days earlier. An HS2 spokesperson said: “We can confirm that all protesters have now been safely removed from the illegal action at Small Dean. By providing a cleaner, greener way to travel, HS2 will help cut the number of cars and lorries on our roads, cut demand for domestic flights, and help the country’s push to reduce carbon emissions. “Instead of wasting their time and public money on often violent and disruptive protest, we would urge anyone who cares about the environment to support this project.” The previous anti-HS2 tunnel protest, close to Euston station in central London, lasted for 31 days. The record for a tunnel protest is 40 days but it is thought that, as with the Wendover protest, part of the eviction resistance was when protesters were above ground. Hooper and Satchel spent 35 days holding out against the national eviction team, 28 of those days completely underground. The environmental activists say they have staged the tunnel protest and many others because they believe the HS2 project is causing untold damage to the environment due to the significant carbon emissions the construction work is generating along with destruction of ancient woodland. HS2 dispute this and say the high-speed rail line will provide an environmentally friendly mode of travel. Cop26 began when the tunnellers were already below ground. On 3 November, Alok Sharma, the president of the Cop26 summit, made a speech referencing Swampy. Sharma said: “But today the Swampys of the world are all around us, in boardrooms, in government departments, in multilateral development banks and trading floors all around the world – you, my friends, are the new Swampys, so be proud.” It is not clear if Sharma was aware that Hooper was in a tunnel at the time he made the speech. The activist was deep underground and without a phone signal so was unable to respond to Sharma in real time. On Saturday, Hooper told the Guardian: “Alok Sharma’s comments are totally outrageous. These are the guys that are trashing the planet. Generally, it’s capitalism that has messed up the planet. Comments like this just bring attention to the hypocrisy of the government. While hosting Cop26 they are backing a major new road building programme and projects like HS2 which will cause a lot of damage to the planet.” Hooper challenged Sharma and the financiers he addressed in his speech to sit down with him “so we can iron out some of the factual points and talk about what we can actually do to save the planet”. A Cop26 spokesperson said: “The Cop president is currently pushing hard to conclude negotiations on a range of issues at Cop26 for a positive outcome for the planet.” Hooper said he would also like to raise concerns about how the police, crime and sentencing bill will curb the right to peaceful protest if it becomes law. He praised the professionalism of the bailiffs who evicted the activists and said he had no complaints about the way they had handled the eviction. “We had a good working relationship. They got on with their job of evicting us and we got on with our job of trying to stop them.” Much of the digging to try to delay the eviction was done by the activists at night. They dug four internal down-shafts, which slowed down the eviction. “We believe our tunnel protest stopped HS2’s piling work from taking place,” said Hooper. “We hope that the tunnel protest will give the climate emergency campaign some momentum.” The tunnellers had stored enough food to last them for two months and said they overdid the stockpiling. “We had to start passing tins of mushy peas up to the surface because we just had too many of them.” He said that much of the underground structure was chalk, which had held up well during the protest. “We didn’t encounter much wildlife down there (apart from the bailiffs) but we did have to evict a glis glis [dormouse] at the beginning of the occupation, though, because it was eating our food.” He has reunited with his partner and some of his children after emerging from the tunnel. Now that he is above ground, Hooper says he hopes to catch up on some sleep. “And I’m looking forward to a beer,” he said.