Just Stop Oil leader: who is Roger Hallam, mastermind of JSO and Extinction Rebellion - has he been in prison?

Just Stop Oil is a successor group to Insulate Britain and was officially founded on Valentine’s Day 2022 - it is made up of volunteer climate activists who protest across the UK through public demonstrations and marches.

JSO is mostly funded by the Climate Emergency Fund, an organisation established by the billionaire fossil fuel heiress Aileen Getty as a platform for environmental philanthropy. 

On the 17 July 2023, 200 members of JSO blocked roads across London during the morning’s rush hour, and 21 protesters were arrested - 21 protesters were arrested.

The group wants to pressure the government to halt all future licensing for fossil fuels exploration and extraction in the UK in the hopes of averting a climate catastrophe.

Recent high-profile projects carried out by JSO include interruptions to sporting events such as the Snooker World Championship in Sheffield, Premiership Rugby final in Twickenham,  Wimbledon, and the Ashes at Lord’s. JSO has also protested at live TV events including the first night of the Proms, and The Last Leg.i

JSO says that it is a non-hierarchical organisation and that its activists act in blocs that are autonomous but share resources and information. They say therefore that JSO does not have one leader. However, the group was largely the brainchild of one man - Roger Halam.

Who is Roger Hallam?

Roger Hallam, 57, has been cited as the mastermind behind Just Stop Oil, as well as the co-founder of earlier environmental groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.

Hallam was born in Manchester and later moved to Carmarthen, Wales, where he ran an organic farm for 20 years. His business collapsed - he blamed extreme weather for the loss of the farm - and he began studying a PhD in civil disobedience at King's College London. It is there where he formed the ideas he would put into place through the groups that he was involved in founding.

During his studies, Hallam and another person spray painted messages on the university campus, urging King’s College to divest from fossil fuels - they were arrested and fined £500 for the stunt.

He has been arrested at least four more times since then, all in relation to actions connected to his environmental activism. He has spent several months in prison whilst awaiting trial, and in 2022 was sentenced to one month in prison over Just Stop Oil’s M25 protests.

He has found himself at the centre of several controversies over the years. The MailOnline branded him a hypocrite in 2021 for keeping six diesel vehicles on his organic farm.

He was also criticised for comments made in 2019 during discussion about genocides, where he reportedly referred to the Holocaust as ‘just another f***ery in human history’. 

Hallam sparked further outrage in a 20-page pamphlet published from prison in the same year in which he suggested that climate change would lead to gangs of men breaking into peoples’ homes and that [the reader] would be forced to watch as their female relatives were gang r**ed. 

Hallam’s latest legal trouble involved charges of criminal damage over paint throwing - he was cleared of the charges in February this year.

Hallam continues to be involved in environmental activism and hosts the Designing the Revolution podcast on Spotify.