Activists from Just Stop Oil blockade back entrance to Downing Street
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Just Stop Oil protesters have returned to blockade the road outside Downing Street in the 12th day of protest action.
Nine activists began the action at 10.45am by blockading Horseguards Road and gluing themselves to the tarmac - just over an hour before Liz Truss was to face MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions at noon.
A specialist police team has been scrambled to the scene to unglue the protesters. Two protesters jumped on top of police vans and refused police orders to come down.
One held a picture of his daughter with a message saying he wanted to do everything he could to halt climate change for her and future generations.
A US tourist passing by the scene told the Standard: “It’s probably a just cause but sitting in the road won’t solve it.”
It is the latest action in a month-long concerted effort by the eco-group to force the Government to stop all new oil and gas licences.
A Just Stop oil activist said at the scene: “We are holding the government to account. We do not want to disrupt the lives of ordinary people.”
But Italian tourist Pietro Prato said: “I think it’s a bit childish. I don’t think the Italian police would be so there lenient.”
The group’s tactics have been slammed by the Government, with a spokesperson calling the protests “unacceptable” after a video Tuesday appeared to show emergency service vehicles being temporarily delayed by action in Knightsbridge.
Liz Truss’s spokesman said Tuesday: “These sorts of protests which disrupt people’s daily lives or indeed can stop our emergency services from potentially saving lives are unacceptable.
“That’s why we’ve already toughened powers for the police, we’ve given them new powers to act and we are also taking further powers through the House at the moment to ensure they can go even further in preventing these individuals from disrupting people’s lives.”
Asked whether members of the public should intervene to remove protesters, the spokesman said that while the Government “can understand the public’s frustrations with their lives being disrupted in this way” it is “for the police to respond in the first instance to these sorts of protests”.
It comes less than 24 hours after the Met Police arrested 28 Just Stop Oil protesters in Knightsbridge at a demonstration on Tuesday.
The force said across nine days of protest more than 270 people have been arrested.
Commander Karen Finlay said: “We will always try and work with protest organisers but they have not responded to us.
“We will always strive to balance the right to protest along with other Londoner’s rights to carry on their normal business.
“However we will not tolerate criminal behaviour, anti-social behaviour, disorder or prolonged disruption.”
The force has been contacted for comment on the latest action.
