Just Stop Oil to develop new activism approach weeks after halting Tempest

Claiming that its demand to end permission for new oil and gas drilling was "now government policy", the group called itself "one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history".

The post continued: "So it is the end of soup on Van Gogh, 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."

In response to alleged political corruption "across the world", which Just Stop Oil attributed to "corporations and billionaires", the group wrote: "We need a different approach.

"We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry out our responsibilities at this time."

Activists announced their final action would take place in Westminster’s Parliament Square on April 26.

In April last year, five Just Stop Oil protests who interrupted a West End performance of Les Misérables were found guilty of aggravated trespass.

Two among the number were also found guilty of criminal damage to an orchestra pit at London’s Sondheim Theatre, where the protest took place on October 4, 2023.

Theatre operators told Westminster Magistrates’ Court they had been left facing costs of £56,878, not including VAT, as a result of the disrupted and subsequently cancelled performance.

More recently, Just Stop Oil protesters halted a Theatre Royal Drury Lane performance of The Tempest, on January 27 this year.

Two activists climbed on to the stage holding a sign alluding to the play’s plot – "Over 1.5 Degrees is a Global Shipwreck" – with police called to the scene.

It is unclear what Just Stop Oil’s new strategy will entail, but the group’s methods have attracted criticism in the past – with anger levelled at the decision to throw soup over beloved works by Vincent van Gogh.