The group says it has been “one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history”, but after persuading ministers to make ending new oil and gas official policy and keeping “4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground”, it says it is time for “a different approach”
Just Stop Oil is to stop throwing soup on paintings and slow marching in streets as it announces its final protest. In a statement, the environmental campaign group 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. So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge, and slow marching in the streets. But it is not the end of trials, of tagging and surveillance, of fines, probation and years in prison.”
It added: “As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world, we need a different approach. We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.”
The Labour government has said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration, with a series of recent court cases halting fossil fuel projects including oil drilling in Surrey, a coal mine in Cumbria, and the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea. But Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer among its many critics. Just Stop Oil’s actions have grabbed headlines, along with criticism and jail sentences – with campaigners having glued themselves to roads and attached themselves to infrastructure at oil facilities. They have also disrupted sports and entertainment events and vandalised famous artworks.
Among the direct action protests they have carried out in the past three years, their activists have disrupted a West End performance of The Tempest, blocked roads, poured paint on a robot at a Tesla shop, and sprayed orange powder on Stonehenge. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested at the incidents, and some have been handed lengthy prison terms.
Last week, nine Just Stop Oil protesters were convicted after police intervened to prevent them from gluing themselves to the runways at Heathrow Airport. Seven of the demonstrators, aged between 26 and 61, were arrested after they were found with glue and angle grinders close to the perimeter fence of the airport in July 2024.
Earlier this month, the group’s co-founder Roger Hallam had his five-year prison sentence reduced by a year after a High Court appeal.
Hallam was jailed last July over a plot to disrupt M25 traffic, which saw 45 people climbing on to gantries over the motorway. He was among a group of 16 activists who challenged jail terms of between 15 months and five years for their roles in four demonstrations between August and November 2022.
