Just Stop Oil has claimed it is ‘hanging up the high vis’ and ending its campaign of stunts after three years of protests that have infuriated the country.
The environmental campaign group have bragged that they are stopping their stunts because the government has caved to their demands.
They will be ‘hanging up the hi vis’ at the end of next month with a final protest outside Parliament on April 26.
‘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,’ they said.
‘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.’
They boasted that they ‘exposed the corruption at the heart of our legal system, which protects those causing death and destruction while prosecuting those seeking to minimize harm’.
Just Stop Oil has said it is going to stop carrying out its campaign of stunts
The group boasted that they no longer need to carry out stunts because the government has introduced their aims
They added: ‘Just Stop Oil will continue to tell the truth in the courts, speak out for our political prisoners and call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws.’
The protest group said that they needed to a different approach and will be creating a ‘new strategy’ and that ‘nothing short of revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms’.
Just Stop Oil rose to prominence in 2022 after a wave of protests that included blocking roads and stopping sports matches theatre productions.
They shut down the M25 and Dartford crossing in November 2022 before targeting the Wimbledon tennis championships, the Ashes at Lord and the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
In September, three supporters threw soup over two of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings at the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery just hours after fellow activists were jailed for doing the same thing to his famous Sunflowers masterpiece.
After covering the paintings in soup, the trio took off their jackets to reveal Just Stop Oil t-shirts and one said: ‘Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history.’
The group claimed to have taken inspiration from the protest by UK lorry drivers in 2000, which ground petrol distribution to a halt.
Just Stop Oil is a coalition group, describing itself as non-hierarchical and has no single, recognised leader.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.