Environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil announces end to direct action

Environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil has announced it will stop direct action, claiming it has won its demand to end new oil and gas.

The group had drawn attention, criticism and jail terms for protests ranging from throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and spray painting Charles Darwin’s grave to climbing on gantries over the M25.

In a statement, the campaign group said: “Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now Government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history.

“We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.”

The campaigners said they were ending their direct action, but would be continuing to “tell the truth” in the courts, as trials continued.

The activists also said they were holding a final Just Stop Oil action in Parliament Square on Saturday April 26.

In the past three years, Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested for numerous direct action protests, including disrupting a West End performance of The Tempest, blocking roads, pouring paint on a robot at a Tesla shop and spraying orange powder on Stonehenge.

Earlier this month, six protesters, including the group’s co-founder Roger Hallam, won reductions at the Court of Appeal in their jail terms for their roles in Just Stop Oil protests in 2022.

Published: 27/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub