Scotland Yard has vowed to make more pre-emptive arrests after activists demanding action on the climate crisis closed parts of the M25 on Monday morning, despite police raids over the weekend specifically aimed at preventing this.
Several activists either glued or locked themselves to gantries over the motorway at 13 locations, police said. They added that all obstructions had been cleared by Monday afternoon.
Officers said 23 people were arrested on Monday as part of the police operation against the campaign group Just Stop Oil. They included 19 people who police said were arrested either on or on their way to a gantry, as well as four more who were arrested pre-emptively at a property in south London. Those followed three pre-emptive arrests on Sunday.
“We will continue with our proactive effort,” Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist told reporters on Monday. He said the activists were engaged in “very clear law-breaking”, adding: “We will work as hard as we can to identify those that are intent on committing crime and to arrest them.”
Twist said the protests had brought sections of London’s orbital motorway to a standstill after officers and National Highways, which manages the road, agreed it would only be safe to attempt to remove the demonstrators if the motorway was closed or, in some case, partially closed.
The Met police assistant commissioner said the arrests were made under the recently passed law that critics have said risks infringing on the right to protest, though he stressed that the specific offence existed in common law before the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 coming into force.
Twist told journalists police believed the protesters’ actions constituted criminality under the act because they judged it disproportionate for a relatively small number of people to cause disruption to thousands using the M25. But he refused to define what would be considered a proportionate protest.
Monday’s demonstrations came after the Metropolitan police said they had carried out a “significant” operation to identify and arrest people suspected of preparing “reckless and serious” motorway disruption on Sunday.
Announcing the first three arrests, Twist had said: “Our investigation has strong reason to suspect the Just Stop Oil group intend to disrupt major motorway road networks, which would risk serious harm to the public, with reckless action to obstruct the public on a large scale.
“All those arrested are suspected of engaging in conspiracy to cause public nuisance contrary to section 78 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.” On Monday, he said the offences carried a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
The Met said it was conducting the operation in conjunction with the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC).
Just Stop Oil staged 32 days of disruption from the end of September through to the end of October, which the Met said resulted in 677 arrests, 111 people being charged, and officers working a total of 9,438 extra shifts.
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The group has been calling on the government to abandon plans to license more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025, and to do more to help people with energy bills.
“Policy failures … will force millions into poverty and face a choice between heating, eating, or providing the basic essentials for themselves and their families,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement.
“After decades of climate misinformation and delay, we face an existential crisis. We are going to lose all we hold dear. We need to ditch new oil and gas now and we need to change our politics, so that in future everyone can have a say in the decisions that will determine the future of humanity.”
The activists added: “Rishi Sunak is calling for a ‘global mission for new jobs and clean growth’, to do this he must end our addiction to dirty fossil fuels and just stop the harm – this starts by ending new oil and gas.”
