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Eco-zealots’ plot to bring Westminster to a standstill in campaign of chaos

CLIMATE-change zealots are plotting to paralyse Parliament during a six-week campaign of chaos, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Activists from Just Stop Oil will block key roads and bridges around Westminster next month in a direct challenge to Liz Truss’s Conservative Government.

Organisers are preparing for 3,000 of their volunteers to be arrested during days of protest and disruption designed to stretch the police to breaking point and clog the capital’s courts.

Details of the plot can be revealed today after our undercover reporter posed as an ecoactivist and infiltrated a series of Just Stop Oil meetings.

At one meeting in Birmingham last week, Roger Hallam, the firebrand founder of Just Stop Oil, disclosed that the campaign will kick off next Saturday with thousands of protesters blocking bridges over the Thames in London ‘all

day’. ‘This is like resistance, British-style,’ he boasted.

Hallam claimed that the Metropolitan Police would be ‘too scared’ to initially arrest activists – but that it would be forced to do so as the protests escalate. And then every day from then on people will be in London sitting in the road, and they will be arrested.’

He said the group was aiming to identify and recruit 1,500 people prepared to get arrested twice in London during the campaign.

Another activist, a former businessman in his late 40s, told a meeting in Norwich earlier this month: ‘We’ve talked to people in the judicial system and they reckon the system couldn’t really cope with about 3,000 arrests.’

Our investigation is the second time in less than a year that we have exposed plans by Just Stop Oil to cause mayhem. In February, an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter revealed how the group was plotting to block oil refineries, motorways and petrol stations across Britain.

Two months later, more than 200 people were arrested amid a string of protests at key oil terminals. Activists later shut the M25 and targeted petrol forecourts in London during a spring and summer of chaos.

Now, as part of its autumn campaign, Just Stop Oil’s leaders have switched their focus from targeting the oil and gas industries to taking their fight to the heart of Westminster.

The group has spent months recruiting people prepared to go to prison for their cause through a series of meetings and workshops, both in person and online.

Central London’s bridges will initially be targeted during a protest march on Saturday. A series of ‘rolling’ road blockades will then hit the area near Parliament Square. MPs return from recess on October 11. Specific details about locations will only be shared with volunteers on the day.

Activists have recorded videos to be released on to social media in the event of them being arrested.

Last night, a spokesperson for the Met said: ‘The Met is aware of planned activity by Just Stop Oil. A robust policing plan will be in place to tackle any criminal behaviour, antisocial behaviour or disorder.’

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2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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