Just Stop Oil accused of criminal damage after spray-painting energy department
Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps has accused Just Stop Oil protesters of “illegal criminal damage” after two activists filmed themselves spraying his department’s building with orange paint.
Matthew Cunningham, 25, and Imogen May, 24, took responsibility for the direct action on the property in Victoria Street in Westminster.
🚨 BREAKING: Just Stop Oil Paint the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
🦺 This morning, 2 supporters of Just Stop Oil have painted the department responsible for issuing over 100 new oil and gas licences in the UK.
🖋️ Sign up to take action at https://t.co/7BzUVS02dZ pic.twitter.com/wQwHVKoN8K
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 19, 2023
The organisation said it spattered the department with paint after it issued more than 100 new oil and gas licences in the UK.
The targeting of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was one of a number of protests carried out by Just Stop Oil in London on Wednesday.
According to the Metropolitan Police, slow-marching demonstrators were cleared by officers from Westminster Bridge, Victoria Street and Vauxhall Bridge Road, as well as from roads in Marylebone and Kensington.
Mr Shapps, responding to questions about the paint protest on LBC during a round of broadcast interviews, said: “It is illegal criminal damage and I will leave that to the authorities.”
A video posted on Twitter by JSO appeared to show two protesters using a spray canister to spread orange paint over glass panels covering Mr Shapps’ Whitehall department.
🦺 Listen to Matthew Cunningham, 25, and Imogen May, 24, explain why they took action at @energygovuk today.
🖋️ Matthew and Imogen have picked a side. Have you? Sign up to slow march at https://t.co/7BzUVS02dZ pic.twitter.com/Yy9Ylb9ZGr
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 19, 2023
Mr Cunningham, in another video posted by JSO, said: “This department oversees our energy policy and we know from last month that the Climate Change Committee, the Government’s independent watchdog for climate change policy, denounced the Government’s efforts against climate change.
“They said that they were far less sure that the Government would achieve net zero than it had been just one year ago.
“And they specifically said that the Government needs to stop issuing new oil and gas licences because it is not compatible with a net zero future.”
Just Stop Oil blocking Westminster Bridge again and traffic to/from St Thomas’s Hospital.
This is unacceptable.
Why won’t Sir Keir Starmer pick up the phone to the common donor of JSO and the Labour Party and tell him to Just Stop It! pic.twitter.com/5IPSRYKBOE
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) July 19, 2023
Ms May said the department is “failing on their only purpose” and that the climate situation is “getting really dangerous”.
Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands, posting a picture on social media of Westminster Bridge being blocked by JSO supporters, called the demonstration “unacceptable”.