UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman expressed outrage on Monday over ongoing eco protests in the country led by the Just Stop Oil (JSO) group, which have inflicted significant costs on British taxpayers in recent months.
According to the Metropolitan Police, the daily slow march protests conducted by climate activists in London over the past six weeks have resulted in costs of millions of pounds and thousands of officer hours.
The police stated that the protests have cost over £4.5 million in expenses and approximately 13,770 officer shifts associated with maintaining order.
Taking to Twitter, Braverman also slammed the Labour Party for voting against the Conservative Party’s measures that would grant police new powers to prevent and end such slow-walking demonstrations.
The cost to the taxpayer of policing selfish protesters is an outrage. More than 13,000 police shifts were wasted & could have been spent stopping robbery & serious violence.Labour voted against our measures tonight & instead backed the eco-zealots. https://t.co/vZSZxB4I3l
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) June 12, 2023
“The cost to the taxpayer of policing selfish protesters is an outrage. More than 13,000 police shifts were wasted and could have been spent stopping robbery & serious violence. Labour voted against our measures tonight & instead backed the eco-zealots," she tweeted.
The Home Secretary’s anger arose as British MPs debated on Monday regarding new police powers to restrict the Just Stop Oil demonstrations.
According to the Daily Mail, the £4.5 million is in addition to the £7.5 million spent on policing the series of protests JSO staged between last October and December.
Activists, from London to Paris to Berlin, have resorted to gluing themselves to streets to disrupt traffic, spraying famous paintings, and disrupting major sporting events.
Last month, two Just Stop Oil protesters were charged with aggravated trespass after briefly bringing Saturday’s Rugby Premiership final at Twickenham Stadium in London to a halt by hurling orange powder on the pitch during the match.
Samuel Johnson, 40, from Suffolk in southeast England, and Patrick Hart, 37, from Bristol, were charged after taking to the pitch to throw orange powder around, according to the capital’s Metropolitan Police.
Earlier, Just Stop Oil also disrupted the World Snooker Championship in April and the British Formula One Grand Prix last July.
Just Stop Oil claimed that since the launch of the group’s campaign in February last year, there have been over 2,100 arrests, and 138 people have spent time in prison.
UK police forces were recently controversially granted new anti-protest powers by the government, following years of disruptive demonstrations by environmental activists.
Several hundred demonstrators, including Just Stop Oil members, are protesting recent legislation, including the protest laws, which opponents say could curb the right to peaceful protest.
(With agency inputs)