Just Stop Oil’s summer of chaos: Environmental group threatens to ‘paralyse London’ with weeks of protests

Environmental protest group Just Stop Oil (JSO), who are campaigning to pressure the government to end new licences for oil and gas extraction in the UK, has threatened a summer of slow march protests for Londoners.

The threat came this morning (17 July) as JSO protesters took part in their biggest slow march to date at 15 sites across the capital, blocking roads during rush hour.

Hundreds of JSO members were involved in this morning’s protest which led to several arrests and altercations with the general public.

The group said it aimed to paralyse London over the summer with weeks of large slow marches that would effectively shut down traffic on busy roads across the city. The government has responded by branding the group ‘eco-zealots’, an epithet previously used by the Prime Minister. 

What happened at the Just Stop Oil slow march in London?

Roughly 200 JSO protesters blocked roads at Bishopsgate, Whitehall, Bird Cage Walk, Bayswater Road, Aldwych, Lillie Road, Jamaica Road, Islington High Street, Kensington Road, Praed Street, Holloway Road, Wandsworth Bridge, Commercial Road, Cromwell Road and Bridge Street in London this morning.

They took part in the slow marches that have become synonymous with the group, where several protesters walk slowly down the middle of a busy road, preventing traffic from passing them and creating a jam.

The Met Police removed 183 protesters from the roads and said they had arrested 21 JSO members for a breach of a section 12 condition to move off a carriageway. In some instances, scuffles broke out, with a member of the public intervening at one slow march to try and pull protesters off the road. 

What have Just Stop Oil said about further protests?

Today JSO tweeted: '@metpoliceuk have been removing Just Stop Oil supporters from the roads...only for the marches to appear in new locations. We will not stand by while everything we know and love is destroyed.'

The tweet also included a link to a page where users can sign up to join training for Just Stop Oil slow marches. The website states: ‘This will mean marching in central London for multiple days’, suggesting JSO has plans for further slow marching in the capital in coming weeks.

What other protests have Just Stop Oil carried out?

JSO has been present at many major British sporting events over the last year - they disrupted the Snooker World Championships in Sheffield, an Ashes test match at Lord’s, a Wimbledon tennis match, and a rugby final at Twickenham. In most cases protesters run onto the location of play during a game and throw an orange powder across it, causing the match to be delayed.

Recently, JSO has started protesting at high profile TV events - two protesters took to the stage briefly at the first night of the Proms, and several members stormed the set of Channel 4’s The Last Leg during a live recording.   

What have politicians said about Just Stop Oil?

A Home Office source told The Express: "These selfish, irresponsible eco-zealots should think about the hard-working Brits whose daily lives they wreck as they try to get to jobs, medical appointments or funerals.” Neither Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer have yet addressed Just Stop Oil’s latest protests, though both men have previously condemned the group’s tactics.

Last month Sunak called the group ‘eco-zealots’ and said that they were ‘writing Keir Starmer's energy policy’, whilst Starmer called JSO ‘arrogant’ and said that preventing emergency vehicles from getting to a hospital was ‘just wrong’.