A motorist has been filmed appearing to assault a Just Stop Oil protester after they blocked a road in Earl’s Court on Wednesday morning.
A man was filmed pushing the protester, Daniel Knorr, 21, to the ground before seemingly kicking him on Earl’s Court Road.
A collision between a Mercedes driver and a van driver took place just before the incident.
He can be heard to say: “You f***ing idiot, stop recording … you little s***”, as Mr Knorr, who gained notoriety after being carried off the pitch at Lords by Johnny Bairstow, lay on the ground.
A group of activists then comes to intervene, while a bystander takes his coat off and goes to confront the man.
Speaking after the incident, Mr Knorr, a student from Oxford, said in a statement: “I haven’t said anything to the police and I don’t plan to, but I’m afraid that the police might go after this man.
“I feel no ill sentiment or ill will against him. It’s a difficult situation for anyone to be in and it’s bound to create frustration. I can tell with the fact that he’d just been in a car accident, he was very stressed.”
The environmental group blocked roads across the capital on Wednesday, with the Met saying it had cleared slow-moving demonstrators from Westminster Bridge, Victoria Street and Vauxhall Bridge Road, as well as from roads in Marylebone and Kensington.
Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps also accused Just Stop Oil of “illegal criminal damage" after two activists filmed themselves spraying his department’s building with orange paint.
Matthew Cunningham, 25, and Imogen May, 24, took responsibility for the direct action on the property in Victoria Street in Westminster in a statement.
Ms May said the department is “failing on their only purpose" and that the climate situation is “getting really dangerous".
Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands, posting a picture on social media of Westminster Bridge being blocked by JSO supporters, called the demonstration “unacceptable".
