Vehicle appears to drive into Just Stop Oil protesters during London march

Yahoo

26-04-2025

A vehicle appears to have driven slowly into Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters as hundreds marched through London for the group's 'last day of action'.
A mass of people wearing JSO's signature orange vests rallied on Saturday afternoon.
This comes after the group claimed a victory on new oil and gas licenses and said 'we're hanging up the hi vis' and 'we will take to the streets one last time'.
Activists appeared to occasionally block roads on the Trafalgar Square roundabout during the planned walk from St James' Park to Waterloo.
Video taken by the PA news agency seems to show a man slowly driving a white minivan carrying a child and at least one other passenger towards protesters for the environmental campaign group.
People standing front of the vehicle, some holding a JSO banner, look to hold their hands up with one shouting 'officer, I'm being pushed back'.
The minivan appeared to edge forwards until the bonnet was pressing against them.
He then exited the vehicle and could be heard shouting 'what are you doing blocking the whole road up?' and saying to police 'what about my right to get home?' as a mass of people including press photographers gathered closely.
Film appears to capture the officers reminding the man that the disruption is temporary and that people had a right to protest.
Police seemed to successfully call for the crowd to move away from the vehicle.
Other similar incidents of drivers apparently becoming frustrated with people in the road were caught on camera.
Last month JSO announced it would stop direct action and announced it had won its demand to end new oil and gas.
During Saturday's rally Keir Lane, 59, from Northamptonshire, told the PA news agency: 'You learn the ropes, you learn your business, and you have to identify your strengths and your weaknesses and make changes in what you do.
'This is why JSO are hanging up the hi-vis vest.
'Effectively what we're saying is we are stopping one model of operating which is the disruptive action that we're known for, and that will then morph into other things… what happens with the Just Stop Oil name, again, I don't think that's that's decided'.
Asked if that action had become a weakness, he said: 'No, but you can't carry on doing the same thing time and time again'.
The march paused at Downing Street, as well as the Royal Courts of Justice where the names of 11 JSO activists said to be serving jail sentences were read out.
It concluded outside the Shell Centre, Waterloo, that was blocked by police.
A message from the co-founder of JSO and Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, recorded in prison was played to the crowd.
He said: 'I have been in a state of some nervous tension all week because I don't particularly feel uplifting to be honest, and faking it is not really one of my things.
'I didn't agree with the winding up of JSO and I want to see a lot more mobilisation and all the rest of it.
'In addition, I've been given a weather report which says that next week hundreds of Asian cities will have all-time high record temperatures and it will be 50C in the Philippines.
'No doubt if a million people have died in record temperatures by this time next week then people will be putting on their hi vis rather than hanging them up.'
Hallam was originally jailed for five years for agreeing to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the M25 for four successive days, but his sentence was later reduced to one of four years at the Court of Appeal.
JSO has 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 its March statement announcing the end of direct action, it 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 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.
The Metropolitan Police have been approached for comment.