Over 60 Just Stop Oil protestors arrested at Parliament Square march
Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, over 60 protesters from environmental activist group Just Stop Oil were arrested at a march outside Parliament. The Met Police were present 10 minutes after the protest commenced.
The activists were arrested under the new Public Order Act, which deems the interference of protestors with areas of key national infrastructure to be a criminal offense. Officers were seen kneeling on and handcuffing activists in an effort to subdue them.
The protest was part of a response to the UK government’s approval of numerous coal, oil, and gas projects. In July, over 100 licenses were granted for oil and gas exploration projects in the North Sea. On 27 September, consent was granted to develop the Rosebank oil field near Shetland, to the consternation of various environmental groups such as Greenpeace. On the day of the protest, the government also offered 27 more licenses for North Sea fossil fuel production, as part of the 33rd Oil and Gas Licensing Round.
In response to the arrests, an anonymous spokesperson from Just Stop Oil has announced that the group intend to keep protesting:
‘Just Stop Oil supporters are willing to slow march to the point of arrest today, and every day until the police take action to prosecute the real criminals – the people who are facilitating new oil and gas when they know that to do so will kill hundreds of millions of people.’
The group continued to march on 1 November, two days after the Parliament Square arrests.
‘I have three brilliant teenagers who I want to see grow and thrive in a healthy and safe world, but on our current trajectory, this will not be their reality,’ says protestor Rebecca Narracott. ‘People have power and we must use our voices and bodies to say, “not in our name.”’
Since its founding on 14 February 2022, Just Stop Oil has gained public attention through a series of controversial high-profile protests in and around London, including blocking the M25, interrupting a musical performance at the Sondheim Theatre, and throwing soup at one of Van Gogh’s paintings in the National Gallery. In July, it was reported that the Met Police had spent £7.7m closing down the group’s protests since April 2023.
The Met Police have condemned the protestors for their actions at a time when officers are already ‘carrying out vital work in their communities’ to manage the civil unrest caused by the Israel-Hamas conflict, with Commander Gordon Kyle deeming the protests ‘unacceptable’.
‘The majority of the public has reached their tolerance with Just Stop Oil, which on occasion is over-spilling into violence,’ he added. ‘It’s clear the public has had enough.’