Just Stop Oil eco-zealots will be forced to pay compensation to the people whose lives they make a misery, under new plans being drawn up by Downing Street to combat protest mayhem

19/05/2024

Just Stop Oil will be forced to pay compensation under new plans being drawn up by Downing Street to combat its protest mayhem.

The group, along with other eco-clowns, will have to pay people whose lives their antics disrupt under the commissioned review into political violence and disruption.

Those who can prove they endured loss, distress or suffering from an illegal protest would be entitled by law to reimbursement.

The Telegraph reported that the plans are supported in principle by Downing Street and are due to be announced on Tuesday.

Led out by Lord Walney, the independent Government adviser, the plans are intended to bring sanctions upon protesters who hold up ambulances, stop or delay employees from getting to work, and losing businesses money.

It may also extend to students being prevented from getting to classes or getting their degrees, like with the recent pro-Palestinian protests at universities.

The review will set out more than 40 recommendations for dealing with disruption.

A Just Stop Oil protest is pictured at London Bridge in June 2023

Protester Eddie Whittingham jumping on the table during a match on day three of the Cazoo World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, last year

Members of Just Stop Oil blockade a petrol station on the M25 in April 2022

Arrested protester following Pro Palestine and members of Just Stop oil breakout group 'Youth demand' target Labour party HQ on Rushworth street in April 2024

Police at the scene in Essex after activists from protest group Just Stop Oil blocked the entrance to the Esso and damaged pumps at the filling station on the M25 in 2022

Just Stop Oil protesters cause chaos on the southern stretch of the M25 in 2022

The Telegraph reported that the review will recommend the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to come up with a legal framework for compensation.

A Home Office source told the newspaper that if JSO organises a major roadblock and someone cannot get to work or miss a hospital appointment, there would be a framework where they could 'more easily sue the organisation'.

They said: 'Number 10 really sees the politics of being able to give more power to individuals to be able to do this. Every time it happens, you have intense frustration for individuals who take things into their own hands but are ultimately powerless when they cannot get to where they are going.

'People organising these blockades are not seeing sufficient deterrent from individual prosecutions. It is about how much it will be worthwhile for them to do it if these proposals are enacted.'

There is nothing to stop businesses or individuals suing a group such as JSO, but no one is thought to have taken action because of the sheer cost and hassle.

JSO campaigners staging a protest in the Shell petrol garage in 2022

Just Stop Oil protesters march from New Scotland Yard to the Supreme Court in 2023

JSO's Phoebe Plummer pictured delivering a letter to what was thought to be Wes Streeting 's home, although this wasn't confirmed as his house, after their actions directed at MP's homes

Those who can prove they endured loss, distress or suffering from an illegal protest would be entitled by law to reimbursement under the new proposals

Just Stop Oil protesters sit on Waterloo Bridge in 2023 being spoken to by police officers

Just Stop Oil protesters on Waterloo Bridge in London last year as they slow-march in the road

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The Telegraph claimed the report is expected to call for 'protest exclusion zones' around MPs' offices.

This means 'buffer zone' powers that currently cover schools and abortion clinics could extend to constituency surgeries and Parliament.

In February, the Mail on Sunday discovered militant Just Stop Oil activists were plotting a sinister nationwide blitz to 'occupy' MPs' homes ahead of the General Election.

Hardcore eco-zealots were also planning to target politicians' offices and disrupt speeches and party conferences in a chilling campaign of intimidation and harassment that strikes at the heart of the democratic process.

Just Stop Oil protester avoids jail after moaning that he had 'ruined his life' and damaged his relationship with his partner by climbing gantry to bring M25 to a standstill

Protesters described their plans as a 'total departure' from previous operations, and told an undercover reporter they were ready to look a 'bit loony' in their flagrant attempt to 'get attention' for their cause.

Last week, an activist who threw orange paint over Scotland Yard's revolving sign was cleared of criminal damage after her barrister likened her to Rosa Parks.

Lora Johnson, 39, used a fire extinguisher to spray paint the sign amid a series of coordinated actions by Just Stop Oil on October, 14, 2022.

Demonstrators also blocked the road in front of the Metropolitan Police headquarters along Victoria Embankment.

Johnson claimed she did not think the sign would be seriously damaged as the paint was water soluble.

The iconic revolving sign is in the open air and designed to withstand all kinds of weather.

Johnson, of Southwold, Suffolk, was cleared of criminal damage by a jury at Southwark Crown Court after she said: 'If we don't act, life on earth will go extinct.'

Meanwhile, heartbreaking videos often go viral of paramedics and members of the public pleading with the activists to let them past.

In November last year, a paramedic begged police to clear Just Stop Oil protesters out of the road so he could attend a 'life or death' emergency as they held up traffic on Waterloo Bridge.

A furious passer-by shouted at the activists to 'protest in the right place' as the ambulance's sirens blared in one incident last year

Video and pictures from the scene showed a blue light ambulance unable to get past

Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland from Just Stop Oil threw soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London

Activists staging a 'die-in' were accused of blocking a 'blue lights' ambulance trying to respond to an emergency at Guy's Hospital in central London.

Video and pictures from the scene showed a blue-light ambulance trapped in gridlocked traffic in central London, where eco-zealots slow-marched and lay down on the wet pavement.

Paramedic begs police to clear Just Stop Oil activists out of the road so he can go to a 'life or death' emergency

One exasperated paramedic is reported to have begged police to be given access through the road, saying he was trying to save someone's life.

Last year, a Just Stop Oil activist who moaned to a judge that climbing a gantry over the M25 had 'completely ruined his life' was spared jail.

Alfred Beswick, of Hackney, east London, helped bring Britain's busiest motorway to a standstill on November 8 that year as part of a series of climate change protests that caused mayhem around London.

The eco-zealot clambered onto the gantry above junction 22 in St Albans, Hertfordshire at 7.15am, wearing an orange hi-vis jacket and hard hat, before being arrested by police.

But despite causing carnage on the M25, Beswick - who had written to the court saying the stunt had wrecked his life and 'really disrupted his relationship with his partner' - avoided jail, with a judge instead handing him a suspended sentence.