Metropolitan Police Spends £7.7 Million on Just Stop Oil Protests in 13 Weeks

A group of environmental campaigners from the Just Stop Oil group block traffic as they take part in a slow procession around Parliament Square in London on May 31, 2023. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The cost of policing Just Stop Oil (JSO) protests in London over the past 13 weeks has risen to £7.7 million. The Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist revealed the figure on Tuesday.

Mr. Twist, who was appearing on the Nick Ferrari programme on LBC radio, said 23,597 officer shifts had been taken up by the policing of 515 JSO marches in London, at a total cost of £7,729,086.20.

“We added up the number of officers we have had to deploy for the 13 weeks of action Just Stop Oil has undertaken to disrupt London,“ said Mr. Twist. ”All of those 23,500 shifts could have been better spent helping local communities in London.”

It was not clear whether the Met would be asking the Home Office for more funding.

Just Stop Oil, which was spawned by the Extinction Rebellion protests in 2018, has promised to continue its campaign of “civil resistance” until the British government halts new fossil fuel projects in the UK.

The organisation recently called on police officers to “realise that their children are in the same danger as the young people they are being told to arrest.”

The Met has arrested 271 people and issued 420 section-12 orders to clear the roads.

During their protests, JSO activists have regularly chosen to stage sit-downs on roads, blocking junctions and other major thoroughfares, or have conducted slow walks in parts of London.

“What is important is it doesn’t stop here,“ said Mr. Twist. ”In the autumn we arrested 750 people, and this time we arrested 271 people and charged 174 ... We have a whole public order and crime team working on that. It is a significant amount of effort.”

Police Officers ‘Could Have Been Doing Other Things’

“Again, these are police who could have been doing other things,” he added.

Asked if the Met had learned any lessons from the JSO protests, Mr. Twist said: “This is really unique in protest terms. The right to protest is part of any democratic society and critically important, but this isn’t protest, it’s crime. There is a difference.”

“The right to protest is strongly protected, but when you get into deliberately causing serious disruption, that tips over into crime,” he added.

In recent months there have been incidents where frustrated motorists have tried to drag protesters out of the way.

“We don’t want people taking the law into their own hands,“ said Mr. Twist. ”Which is why we need to get there and take action quickly. And the law has changed on that and we have had to adapt to the new legislation.”

“One of the challenges we have with JSO is it doesn’t say when it will protest and take action—it doesn’t engage. We need to ensure there is a quick response,” he added.

Mr. Twist said if JSO activists slow-walk along the A40 Westway in London, it causes “serious disruption.”

Police Say No ‘Right to Disrupt Others’

“The right to protest is fundamental, but the right to disrupt others isn’t,” he said.

“What we saw in the autumn was people locking on or gluing on, and they were charged with highway obstruction,“ said Mr. Twist. ”It is harder to make an offence of slow walking, which is why changes were made to the Public Order Act.”

Last month Mr. Twist told LBC that many of the JSO protesters’ court cases would not come before the courts until 2025.

In February it was reported that nine weeks of JSO protests had cost the British taxpayer £7.5 million.

For its part, JSO says it is financed entirely by donations.

Last month, The Epoch Times reported that former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s organisation, Onward Together, had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Climate Emergency Fund, which in turn made donations to JSO.