Roger Hallam

THE Just Stop Oil group has vowed to keep up its series of slow-walking protests in central London this month despite two prominent members having their homes raided by the police.

Environment campaigners Indigo Rumbelow and Roger Hallam were arrested after police “forced entry into their homes”.

The group intends to continue staging marches in central London in defiance of new police powers brought in by the government to clamp down on public protest.

The Public Order Act 2023 has been used against campaigners taking part in peaceful protests with custodial sentences and heavy fines.

A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said they would not be “intimidated by our criminal government”, and added: “New oil and gas will result in unimaginable suffering and destroy the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

“No one has ever voted for this, there has never been a democratic mandate to destroy the habitable world.”

The new public order act, which was created partly in response to Extinction Rebellion protests in the West End in 2018 and 2019, received royal assent on May 2.

Indigo Rumbelow

The arrests of Ms Rumbelow and Mr Hallam come in the week that Greta Thunberg was charged after allegedly taking part in a protest in Park Lane, near Hamilton Place in Mayfair.

A demonstration by the Fossil Fuel London group was being held on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old is accused of breaching a section 14 order that police put in place outside the InterContinental Hotel where oil executives were meeting on Tuesday for the Energy Intelligence Forum.

She was released on bail with a trial date set for November 15.

The Metropolitan Police Service said on Tuesday that it imposed conditions on the protesters under section 14 of the public order act, to “prevent serious disruption to the community, hotel and guests”.

Speaking on the day, Ms Thunberg said: “Behind these closed doors at the oil and money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries, the fossil fuel industry.”

Environmental groups say the policy of digging for new oil and gas supplies will push the world past irreversible tipping points and lead to the collapse of organised civil society.

On the JSO arrests, the MPS said: “A 29-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man were arrested in London on the morning of Wednesday, 18 October on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.

“Officers arrested two people as part of an operation aimed at preventing serious disruption by Just Stop Oil ahead of more protests expected in London later this month.

“The group has publicly stated that it wants to cause maximum disruption.”