Jailed M25 protesters gain support ahead of appeal

Just Stop Oil protesters were jailed for blocking the M25 over a period of days in November 2022

The great-granddaughter of leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst has said sentences given to several climate protesters were "heavy-handed and disproportionate" ahead of an appeal against their prison terms.

Sixteen activists jailed for as long as five years for their involvement in protests will challenge the length of their sentences at the Court of Appeal in London.

They were jailed for activities such as blocking the M25, throwing soup on to Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, and occupying tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex.

Lending her support to their appeals, campaigner Helen Pankhurst compared their campaigns with that of the suffragettes.

"Environmental activists today stand in the same tradition," Ms Pankhurst said.

"I have no doubt future generations around the world will thank them for their campaigns."

Just Stop Oil protesters Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw and Roger Hallam have the support of environmental charities

'Campaigner to fanatic'

Environmental campaign groups Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Greenpeace UK have been allowed to intervene in the case of five protesters, referred to by FoE as the "Whole Truth Five", who were jailed in July last year for disrupting traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the M25 for four successive days in November 2022.

Roger Hallam, co-founder of environmental campaign groups Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was sentenced to five years in prison while Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin each received four-year jail terms.

All five protesters were convicted of conspiracy to intentionally cause a public nuisance, a law introduced in 2022 which outlaws direct action that causes "serious harm" to a section of the public. This can include property damage, injury, serious distress, annoyance or inconvenience.

During their trial, prosecution barristers told the court the protest had led to 50,000 hours of vehicle delays, an economic hit of at least £765,000, and cost the Metropolitan Police more than £1.1m.

During the trial last year, Judge Christopher Hehir said the five protestors had "crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic".

He added Parliament had made clear it saw non-violent direct action against national infrastructure as serious and passed a law allowing him to hand down sentences of up to 10 years - more than for some violent offences.

Just Stop Oil disrupted traffic after protesters climbed onto gantries over the M25

Calling for the court to repeal the sentences, Ms Pankhurst said: "The heavy-handed and disproportionate custodial sentences given in the UK to peaceful environmental activists speaking truth to power is worrying in the extreme."

FoE and Greenpeace UK said their submissions supporting the five would also "assist those involved in the other linked appeals".

Among those due to appeal against their sentences are Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, who were jailed to two years and 20 months respectively for throwing soup on protective glass in front of the Sunflowers painting at London's National Gallery.

FoE said that its lawyers would argue that the sentences were "excessive" and breached human rights legislation, claiming they posed a "serious threat to our democracy".

Katie de Kauwe, senior lawyer at FoE, said: "Instead of further burdening our overcrowded prison system by criminalising those trying to push the climate and nature emergencies up the political agenda out of sheer desperation, the government should be accelerating efforts to deliver fair and meaningful action on the environment."

Photographed here in 1908, Emmeline Pankhurst was vital in securing women's rights to vote

Ms Pankhurst's great-grandmother Emmeline Pankhurst founded the British suffragette movement in 1903 and helped women win the right to vote.

Helen Pankhurst, who is the University of Suffolk's chancellor, has continued her family's ongoing campaigns for gender equality.