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

“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 Labour Government has said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration, while a series of recent court cases have halted fossil fuel projects including oil drilling in Surrey, a coal mine in Cumbria and the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea over climate pollution.

But Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer criticising its actions and saying protesters must face the full force of the law.

Responding to the announcement by the campaign group on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman denied the Government had handed Just Stop Oil “a win”, and said: “We have been very clear when it comes to oil and gas that it has a future for decades to come in our energy mix.”

Asked whether the Government had agreed to JSO’s demand of “shutting down the North Sea”, the spokesman added: “It’s clearly not the case.

“And I think when it comes to Just Stop Oil, they have succeeded in creating a significant amount of disruption and public nuisance, and spoiled a few oil paintings, but when it comes to our plans for energy security, they remain as stated.”

Asked whether the Government accepted it had “handed them a win”, he said: “No. It is obviously up to them to decide how they want to conduct their operations, although I’m sure there will be plenty of members of the public happy to hear that they will be causing less disruption in the future.”

The Just Stop Oil campaigners said that while they were ending their direct action, they 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.

They have accused the UK of having “oppressive anti-protest laws”.

Making the announcement on Thursday, Just Stop Oil said it was not the end of civil resistance, accusing “governments everywhere” of retreating from what was needed to protect people from unchecked fossil fuel burning.

In response to the announcement, Greenpeace – which has a long history of direct action – said the history of democracies was built by the likes of the Suffragettes, trade unionists, gay rights and anti-fracking activists who were “brave enough to make themselves unpopular for a cause they believed in”.

Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “Just Stop Oil paid a heavy price for raising their voices at a time when politicians and corporations are trying to silence peaceful protesters – in the streets and in the courts.

“We must not allow our hard-won right to protest to be stripped away, because it is the right that all other rights depend upon.

“Greenpeace and many others will continue to defend this proud tradition of taking action on issues that matter to make change possible.”