Just Stop Oil—a left-wing environmental activist group behind a series of illegal actions such as blocking access to gas stations and parts of England’s M25 motorway, breaching High Court injunctions, and throwing soup at Van Gogh paintings—has returned after a hiatus to block the UK Parliament, resulting in dozens of arrests.
This time it sought to block new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first Prime Minister’s Questions in Westminster on Sept. 2. Just Stop Oil (JSO) said 60 people were blocking the road on London’s Parliament Square, and a significant number were “glued on.” Additionally, JSO said, 40 or more people were demonstrating in support from the sidewalk.
It was the group’s first major disruption since pausing its public disruption campaigns in 2025.
JSO said in a Sept. 2 statement that it was demanding that Burnham sign “a Fossil Fuel Treaty” and stop approving “all future oil and gas projects.”
When contacted, a Met Police spokeswoman forwarded The Epoch Times to a Sept. 2 post on X, which said that the protest is “now concluded” and that 59 people were arrested for a range of offenses, including disrupting key national infrastructure, “locking on” to cause serious disruption, and conspiring to cause a public nuisance.
The Met confirmed that protesters glued themselves to the road and specialist officers had to remove them.
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Trish Fitzmaurice, a mother from Norfolk, one of the activists arrested on the road, said in a statement: “Andy Burnham, we are crying out for leadership! The climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. We are destroying our only home by burning fossil fuels. Oil and gas mean death.”
The UK’s ruling Labour Party has stated it is committed to a phased transition in the North Sea and will not issue any new oil and gas or coal licenses.
In an interview with the Financial Times on July 19 in the run-up to the Autumn Budget, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Lucy Powell said that Burnham would not overturn Labour’s manifesto pledge to end new exploration licenses in the North Sea.
A Scottish court ruled in January 2025 that previous consents for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields were unlawful because they did not consider emissions produced from burning the fuels.
According to the Metropolitan Police, hundreds of activists have been arrested since police were granted powers under Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, which allows the Met to arrest those who commit an act “which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales.”
CEF said JSO raised and spent approximately $6.3 million between its launch in April 2022 and July 2024.
Aileen Getty cofounded the group with wealthy donors, including renewable fuels businessman Trevor Neilson and Rory Kennedy, daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, now deceased.
CEF donor and Hollywood film director Adam McKay once pledged to triple donations to JSO made in a 48-hour window in 2023.
JSO uses funding tools from countries abroad such as the U.S.-based Action Network. The Action Network, an online tool for “left-of-center outlets to organize, fundraise, and circulate petitions for liberal causes,” was born out of the Occupy Wall Street protests, according to Influence Watch.
Action Network says on its website, “We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action.”