After months of blocking cars, interrupting sporting events and throwing soup on paintings, Just Stop Oil have announced they are ending direct action – because they’ve achieved their aim.
The Labour government has said it will not be issuing new licences for new oil and gas exploration, which is what Just Stop Oil have been campaigning for.
In a statement announcing their final protest, the group said this marked the climax of “one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history.”
They said: “We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground, and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.
“So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, 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.”
It added: “As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world, we need a different approach. We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.”
Just Stop Oil announced their final action would take place in Parliament Square on April 26.
Some of the group’s most memorable protests have been spraying Stonehenge with orange paint, interrupting matches during Wimbledon, the Ashes and the World Snooker Championships and throwing soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Since coming into power last summer, Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, with Keir Starmer being highly critical of the group.
Nevertheless, the government has now adopted exactly what the orange hi-vis-wearers were asking for.
Hundreds of protestors have been arrested due to their involvement in incidents, with some having been handed prison sentences lasting several years.
Related: Just Stop Oil campaigner, 77, sent back to jail ‘because her tag doesn’t fit’