Just Stop Oil protestors try to scale Downing Street gates

Just Stop Oil protestors clambered over railings in an attempt to climb the gates at Downing Street, but were quickly removed by armed police.

Others from the environmental activist group glued themselves to the tarmac while others sat in the road with banners blocking Whitehall.

“Rishi Sunak is about to U-turn on attending COP27. We demand that he also U-turn on new oil and gas. This genocidal policy will kill millions of people, while failing to address the worst cost of living crisis this country has ever seen,” said a Just Stop Oil spokesperson.

“Its time for a serious windfall tax on big oil, without the get-out-of-jail-free tax credits that will encourage more oil and gas that we cannot afford. Vulnerable people will be freezing to death in their homes this winter, unable to afford a can of soup, while his government refuses to tax the rich and the big energy companies that are profiting from our misery.

“We owe it to our young people to stop fossil fuels, we owe it to our workers to create a just transition to a zero carbon economy, we owe it to our old people to enable them to live with dignity. We are not prepared to stand by and watch while everything we love is destroyed.”

The action follows an announcement by BP of £7bn profits for the last quarter.

The action today follows for weeks of protest in which police have arrested 678 Just Stop Oil protestors. Since the start of the campaign on April 1, almost 2,000 people have been arrested and six are still in prison.

The Met Police issued a statement through social media saying they are “aware of protesters in Whitehall/Downing Street and are on the scene and dealing”.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist spoke on LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, and said he would make sure the protestors were “all brought to justice”.

“What the police need to do is to provide an impartial, fair response, sticking to the law,” he said.

“And we’ll deal with the events as we find them.

“The important thing is, whether one per cent or 99 per cent of the population support a cause, we will police it impartially.

“What we’ve seen in this case is that a relatively small group of people have caused serious disruption to London and as a result of that it’s absolutely our intention to make sure that they’re all brought to justice.”

Just Stop Oil is an environmental activist group using civil resistance and direct action with the aim of ensuring the British government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production.