Sixteen Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested at Parliament Square after failing to move off the road during a second week of daily demonstrations.
Metropolitan Police said 16 people participating in a slow march through central London were arrested under section 12 of the Public Order Act, while seven others complied and moved off the road.
“They were arrested for breaching conditions that they remain off the road,” the Met said on Thursday.
“The group had been closely monitored by police. At around 12.30pm they were given conditions to stay out of the road. They group did not comply and by 1.05pm the arrests were made,” a police spokesman said.
The force added: “We understand the considerable concern disruptive protests cause.”
🦺 The British people will not stand by while this illegitimate government eradicates every hard-won right we have. As today’s arrests have shown, when all legal avenues for dissent have been banned, we will continue to march. What else is there for us to do when we face the… pic.twitter.com/zlPNwzIRvN
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) May 3, 2023
Just Stop Oil said the arrests meant “the fundamental right to express dissent has been taken away from the British people”.
“As today’s arrests have shown, when all legal avenues for dissent have been banned, we will continue to march. What else is there for us to do, when we face the existential crisis those in power are facilitating?”
It came the day after a Just Stop Oil protester’s foot appeared to have been run over by a driver amid a slow march in north London on Tuesday morning.
The group marched through Parliament Square and several other locations including Borough and Islington, in a second week of consecutive demonstrations that have blocked traffic.
One person appeared to be pushed to the side and another thrown to the ground as a car made its way through a small group of activists wearing high-vis jackets and holding a banner.
“It has gone over her foot,” one person was heard saying in the video, while consoling the injured protester.
Just Stop Oil wrote on Twitter: “After weeks of inflammatory language from politicians and right-wing media personalities, a car has finally rammed into a peaceful protest.”
The group, an off shoot of Extinction Rebellion, are demanding that the Government stops all new oil and gas projects.
The Government plans to license more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025.
