London Marathon and Extinction Rebellion: No arrests as The Big One protest coincides with race

No arrests were made as Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) The Big One protest in London coincided with the London Marathon, the Met Police has confirmed, amid concerns the event could disrupt runners.

Discussions had been held between the marathon organisers and XR months ahead of the protest, which began on April 21 in Westminster and is due to end later today (April 24).

A spokesperson for XR previously said the group had always planned to run the event alongside the marathon, without interference, and that some XR runners were entering the race.

The London marathon race director, Hugh Brasher, spoke of XR’s plans to ask its participants to “help guard” marathon runners as they passed by Parliament Square.

Now, a Met Police spokesperson has confirmed no arrests took place, with a spokesperson for XR adding: “There were no issues yesterday with The Big One and London Marathon.”

Richard Ecclestone, a former army officer and police officer and currently protest liaison for XR, told LondonWorld representatives from both events were “working very closely together” on the day, so that, “in the very, very unlikely event that anything should happen to potentially disrupt the marathon, we could quickly find out what was going on, sort it out, and then the runners could be safe in the knowledge that anything that could possibly have been done…has been done”.

The fourth and final day of The Big One includes the group’s picket to parliament presenting their demand, which is that the fossil fuel era must end, and that the UK government must create a citizen’s assembly “to lead on fair, long-term solutions to the most urgent issues of our time”.