Environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil has announced it will no longer carry out direct action.
Over the course of three years, activists have taken part in a number of high-profile demonstrations, including throwing cans of soup on van Gogh paintings, blocking roads and even disrupting a West End performance of The Tempest.
Just Stop Oil’s initial demand was for the to end licences for new oil and gas production in the UK, which is now a government policy.
Although it will no longer be taking direct action, it will continue to speak in court for what it calls its “political prisoners” and call out anti-protest laws in the UK.
The announcement comes after new laws have made it increasingly difficult to carry out disruptive protests.
Campaign group activists have been arrested for numerous direct action protests since the group started in 2022.
Here, The Independent highlights a few of the most memorable protests.
Soup thrown on Van Gogh’s sunflowers
One stunt from the group saw two eco-activists throw tins of Heinz tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers in October 2022.
Phoebe Plummer 23, and Anna Holland, 22, caused as much as £10,000 worth of damage to the artwork’s gold-coloured frame when they targeted it at London’s National Gallery.
Plummer received a two-year jail term, while Holland was handed 20 months.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw the soup over the 1888 work, worth more than £74 million, before kneeling down in front of the painting and gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.
Staff at the gallery inspected the painting and frame for damage while the women were still attached to the wall, and were worried the soup may have dripped through the protective glass.
The frame was purchased by the gallery in 1999, the court heard and was valued at £28,000 before it suffered the estimated £10,000 worth of damage.
Disrupting a West End play
Two Just Stop Oil protesters were accused of disrupting a West End performance of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver in January.
Richard Weir, 60, of Tynemouth, and Hayley Walsh, 42, of Radcliffe on Trent, both in Nottinghamshire, were charged with aggravated trespass at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on January 28, Scotland Yard said.
The pair were accused of climbing on to the stage before setting off confetti and unfurling a banner that read: “Over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck.”
Orange powder on Stonehenge
Orange powder was sprayed on the ancient monument during a Just Stop Oil protest in June 2024.
Video footage posted on social media showed two people wearing white shirts with the slogan Just Stop Oil approaching the stone circle with canisters and spraying orange powder paint.
Following the protest, English Heritage said experts had quickly removed the orange powder from the stones.
Rajan Naidu, 74, and Niamh Lynch, 22, pleaded not guilty to two charges of damaging an ancient protected monument and causing a public nuisance following the incident on June 19 last year. They were released on bail.
The action sparked widespread condemnation as well as concerns over about potential damage to the stones and the lichens that grow on them.
Paint poured over Tesla robot
Two Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested after pouring orange powdered paint over a robot at a Tesla shop in Shepard’s Bush, west London.
Metropolitan Police said retired teacher Catherine Rennie Nash, 74, and former tax adviser Nigel Fleming, 63, climbed on to a podium display in the store on March 12.
The campaigners then proceeded to pour paint over the robot and unfurled a Just Stop Oil banner.
The environmentalists said it was a protest against Tesla owner Elon Musk and other billionaires “jeopardising climate science” and threatening democracy.
Four days of protest on the M25
Environmental campaigners brought rush hour traffic on the M25 to a standstill causing chaos for motorists when protesters climbed up the gantries.
Five Just Stop Oil protesters were handed jail terms over the protests.
Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, agreed to cause disruption to traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four successive days in November 2022.
Just Stop Oil co-founder Hallam was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while the other four defendants were each handed four years’ imprisonment.
Prosecutors said the M25 protests, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.
They allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 “compromised” for more than 120 hours.
Activists also targeted several locations along the motorway circling Greater London in a call to end all new oil and gas licenses.
The campaigners staged a similar protest in October 2023 by climbing the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which links Kent and Essex, causing the closure of the Dartford Crossing for two days.
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