UK climate activists jailed for at least four years over road blocks

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Five UK climate activists have been given record jail sentences for a non-violent protest under a new law, each serving a term of at least four years for their role in shutting down the M25 motorway.

The five Just Stop Oil protesters were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, after they joined a Zoom call about the four-day demonstration that took place in November 2022.

Judge Christopher Hehir said that while “at least some of the concerns [of the defendants] are shared by many”, the protesters had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”.

The sentences are the longest since the introduction by the previous government of the public nuisance law, in an effort to end the disruptive protests.

At Southwark Crown Court, Roger Hallam, 58, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, was sentenced to five years in prison, while Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, were handed four-year terms.

The five had spoken on a call about recruiting volunteers, resulting in about 45 protesters climbing on gantries at various points on the orbital road.

Prosecutors said the action had resulted in chaos on the M25 over four successive days, causing 51,000 hours of driver delays, at an estimated economic cost of at least £765,000 and a policing bill of more than £1.1mn.

The court heard that traffic was prevented from other roads from joining the motorway, and that people missed medical appointments, flights and exams.

The convictions follow the recent jailing of an Extinction Rebellion activist for a year for cracking a window at JPMorgan’s London office.

It comes amid a legislative and judicial crackdown on protests in the UK at the same time that British prisons are grappling with huge overcrowding.

Chris Packham, the naturalist, and Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, were among those to express concern over the lengthy sentences for climate protests and called for a meeting with the new attorney-general, Richard Hermer.

“GBH? Armed robbery? Attempted murder? Possession of an assault rifle? No. These peaceful Just Stop Oil protesters have received the longest ever sentences for non-violent protest,” Vince posted on social media.

The average sentence for home burglary is about 2.5 years in the UK, according to the non-profit Sentencing Academy.

Vince argued the latest sentences were a “legacy of the last government”, but called for Labour to “swiftly correct” the clampdown on non-violent protests.

The Labour government declined to comment.

After a spate of climate protests in recent years, the former conservative government introduced the legislation to curtail the activities, including strengthening police powers to restrict protests, to stop and search people “without suspicion”, as well as creating new offences.

At the same time, judges have handed down increasingly longer sentences for climate protests.

Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who had attended for part of the M25 proceedings, criticised the severity of UK protest laws.

“Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom,” he said.

The rulings set a dangerous precedent for “any form of peaceful protest that may, at one point or another, not align with the interests of the government of the day.”