More than 60 Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested for shutting down roads and bringing traffic to a standstill outside the Houses of Parliament.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that 62 activists were detained as they “slow marched” towards the Palace of Westminster at 10am this morning.
Cars and buses blasted their horns after becoming stuck behind the large group of Just Stop Oil (JSO) members, who were videoed walking straight through a line of outnumbered officers trying to stop them.
Police reinforcements arrived within minutes and began hauling people off the road, one at a time. An elderly woman was filmed being carried away “spread-eagle” by four officers.
JSO said the group was made up of “supporters from the Midlands and east of England” who want the government to immediately halt all new oil, gas, and coal projects in the UK.
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The group said: “At 10.10am, a number of Metropolitan Police arrived and began pushing the Just Stop Oil supporters back and forming a chain across the road in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them from marching.
“Unlike previous Just Stop Oil slow marches, which were policed using Section 12 orders, they issued a Section 7 order which criminalises members of the public based on alleged interference with ‘the use or operation of key national infrastructure’.”
Officers dragged the activists to the pavement and had to kneel and sit on them in some cases to prevent them returning to the road. It took around 40 minutes for the lanes to be cleared, allowing frustrated commuters to continue their journeys.
The incident marks the start of a planned three weeks of action across London, which the campaign group claims will cause disruption on an “unprecedented scale”.
JSO said its 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.
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“Just in the last week, seven people have died in the UK as a result of extreme weather and scientists are telling us it will only get worse.”
The group added: “Neither major political party is serving the interests of the country. They are serving the mass murderers profiting while the world burns. There is no real opposition.”
The Met has warned that it will “use all available powers” as part of its policing response, “to allow Londoners to continue their daily business” during the group’s protests.
It has also written to JSO leaders ahead of the new campaign, asking to work together to “ensure any protest activity is lawful”. However, last week it said it had no response.
Separately, JSO said it has sent its own letter to Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, demanding that he open an investigation into “the politicians and executives” responsible for environmental crimes.
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Among those protesting was Ian Chapman, 52, a doctor from Bury St Edmunds.
He said: “20 or 30 years from now, I won’t look back and regret having taken direct action, but I will regret it if I don’t. I expect to get arrested today, whilst the people in the building I’m marching past are making decisions that will kill millions. I will get off the road when the police take action against the real criminals.”
Also marching was Imogen May, 24, a food producer from Halesworth, who said: “I am so scared to think what his world will look like in five or ten years’ time. I’d love to live a normal life, without worrying about climate collapse. I know that to have a chance at having a normal life later, we have to take action now.”
