- Live Just Stop Oil: Police officer injured as lorries crash during M25 blockade - follow protests live The Telegraph
- Just Stop Oil protests: Police officer hurt amid M25 disruption BBC
- Just Stop Oil protests affect M25 and Dartford crossing BBC
- The hysterical activists of Just Stop Oil are undermining their own cause The Telegraph
- Just Stop Oil protests will end in tears – someone could get killed The Independent
- View Full coverage on Google News
It is "only a matter of time" before someone is killed by a Just Stop Oil protest, a police chief has warned after his officer was knocked off a motorcycle and injured on the M25.
BJ Harrington, chief constable of Essex Police, told The Telegraph he was "devastated" that the roads policing officer was hurt on Wednesday responding to the activists’ latest motorway stunt.
He said there was "nobody responsible" for the officer’s injury "other than Just Stop Oil", whose activists have been climbing gantries on the 116-mile London orbital all week to force road closures.
The injured officer had been trying to implement a "rolling roadblock" - to help ease existing traffic before a road can be closed - between Junctions 26 and 27 when two lorries crashed and knocked him off his bike.
He was taken to hospital but it is hoped that he will make a full recovery.
Mr Harrington told The Telegraph: "It's been a game changer today, if indeed you could describe this as a game because it is a pretty serious one".
His remarks came after Suella Braverman condemned Just Stop Oil's "guerilla tactics" after activists scaling gantries this morning led to a police officer being injured in a collision on the busy motorway.
Just Stop Oil protesters are 'extremists', says Home Secretary
Speaking to journalists after her speech, Home Secretary Suella Braverman referred to Just Stop Oil protesters as "extremists".
She said: "There are many thousands of police days - not just within the Met but also from other forces because we're adding resources from forces outside those which are directly affected - thousands of police days and hours which are being diverted away from, you know, combating rape and homicide and burglary, diverted to dealing with these extremists."
She said she has concerns about how forces are interpreting laws around how much disruption protests cause.
"I've got some concerns about the interpretation of serious disruption and when that threshold is hit, and also the cumulative impact.
"So when we see a daily reset do you assess it cumulatively over a 10-day period or week or do you say, well I'm just measuring it in a 24 hour period?
"I think police forces and chiefs would welcome clarity on the law and what their powers actually are."
New powers to be introduced 'so that police can go further', No 10 says
The Government is working to give police more powers to tackle disruption from protest action, Downing Street has said.
Asked about the Just Stop Oil protests on the M25, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We are introducing new powers so that police can go further in tackling this constant disruption we are seeing.
"It's causing mass misery for the public, as we've seen today, even putting lives in danger and stopping emergency services from going about their work.
"So the public rightly want the police to have the powers to take action and that's what we are delivering."
Essex Police Chief: It's not an 'awful situation', it's a criminal situation
"We have been telling Just Stop Oil all the time that motorways are dangerous places and people will and do get killed," BJ Harrington told our Crime Correspondent, Jack Hardy.
"It's devastating. Our officers have been out there doing the best they can to protect the public and keep the roads moving. As a result of their bravery and commitment, one of them gets hurt.”
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, condemned the group’s "guerilla tactics" and expressed her "thoughts and best wishes" to the injured officer.
Mr Harrington warned that the consequences in future could be even graver.
He said: "I think it is only a matter of time before somebody gets killed.
"The only way this is going to stop is if Just Stop Oil frankly grow up and realise they are putting people's lives at risk."
The police chief described being particularly incensed to see a spokesman for the protest group describe the collision as an "awful situation".
"I just want to really stress the point that Just Stop Oil are putting lives at risk," he said
"It's not an 'awful situation', it's a criminal situation."
Braverman: 'It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick'
Home Secretary Suella Braverman told police chiefs at a conference in Westminster
Although most police officers do an excellent job, sadly, in recent months and years we have seen an erosion of confidence in the police to take action against the radicals, the road-blockers, the vandals, the militants and the extremists.
But we have also seen the police appear to lose confidence in themselves; in yourselves. In your authority, in your power. An institutional reluctance. This must change.
Criminal damage, obstructing the highway, public nuisance – none of it should be humoured. It is not a human right to vandalise a work of art. It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick and injured.
Such disruption is a threat to our way of life. It does not ‘further a cause’. It is not ‘freedom of expression’ and I want to reassure you that you have my – and this government’s – full backing in taking a firmer line to safeguard public order. Indeed, that is your duty.
Scenes of members of the public taking the law into their own hands are a sign of a loss of confidence and I urge you all to step up to your public duties in policing protests.
Reporting by Martin Evans, our Crime Editor
Suella Braverman condemns Just Stop Oil's M25 'guerilla tactics'
Suella Braverman has condemned Just Stop Oil's "guerilla tactics" after activists scaling gantries this morning led to a police officer being injured in a collision on the busy motorway.
The Home Secretary said: "My thoughts and best wishes go to the Essex Police officer injured while dealing with protesters engaging in guerrilla tactics on the M25 today.
"These protests are dangerous and I fully back police in using all tools available to prevent further disruption and protect the public."
An officer was injured in a "serious" incident after two lorries crashed with a police motorbike following road blocks put in place for the climate protesters.
Essex Police told The Telegraph: "Initially officers intervened to deal with a protester on the motorway between Junction 26 and 27. Due to this a rolling road block was put in place.
"Subsequently, there was a collision involving two lorries and a police motorbike.
"Thankfully the motorbike rider has not been seriously injured."
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said the collision this morning was "an awful situation" but doubled down on their cause, adding: "In normal circumstances this would be unacceptable".
Met says they are dealing with JSO activists as quickly as possible
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said officers are dealing with Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters as quickly as possible.
He said: "We have gone as fast as we think we can do on the JSO issues.
"We can't take snipers apparently to people who are climbing the gantries, when we use the angle grinders we have to apparently just take off the locks, we can't take off the limbs at the same time.
"There are limits to how you can do this at speed. We are turning up at those things very quickly. We're going as quickly as we can."
On Wednesday Met officers had to use an angle grinder to remove a bicycle D-lock from the neck of a protester who had attached themselves to a gantry, he said.
'Vital' that journalists are able to do job freely, No 10 says
Rishi Sunak believes it is "vital" that journalists are able to do their job freely, Downing Street has said following the arrest of a radio journalist while reporting on a Just Stop Oil protest.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters: "It's vital journalists are able to do their job freely without restriction.
"I am cautious about commenting on specific incidents. Operational decisions are a matter for the police but the Prime Minister strongly believes in championing press freedoms.
"We wouldn't want to see those freedoms impeded whilst journalists are going about their day-to-day business".
Protest groups using 'dangerous' tactics, chair of NPCC says
Speaking to journalists after his conference speech, Martin Hewitt said some protest groups are increasingly using "dangerous" tactics.
"We are increasingly seeing things that are dangerous - dangerous for the protesters, dangerous for other members of the public and, as we've seen this morning, dangerous for police officers," he said.
"I just think that all of those groups, who have every right to make the point they want to make, have every right to seek to get that point through the media, need to think really hard about the responsibility that they have both to themselves, to other members of the public and to, as we've seen, police officers that are that are having to go there and try and deal with these very difficult circumstances."
Two protesters charged following yesterday's M25 disruption
Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been charged over disruption on the M25, Essex Police has said.
Charlotte Kirin, 53, of Peckham Street, Bury St Edmunds, and 55 year-old Paul Bleach, of Locarno Road, Portsmouth, were charged with intentionally recklessly causing a public nuisance.
On Tuesday, they were arrested at junctions 31 and 27 of the M25 respectively.
Both are expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
Hertfordshire Police say officers used 'professional judgement' in arresting journalist
Hertfordshire Police responded to the widespread criticism of the arrest of LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch, saying: "As always, our priority remains to ensure public safety - we have a responsibility for the health and safety of all those involved and everyone at the scene, including emergency services, members of the public, members of the press and the protesters themselves.
"These operations are very fluid and fast moving, with the potential to cause widespread and sustained disruption, that not only affects Hertfordshire's stretch of the M25 but also the wider road networks.
"Our officers have been instructed to act as quickly as they can, using their professional judgment, to clear any possible protesters in order to get roads up and running and to prevent anyone from coming to harm."
Speaking to journalists at a conference in Westminster on Wednesday, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, Martin Hewitt, said officers are under pressure when dealing with protesters but media should not be prevented from reporting on them.
He said: "There's an enormous amount of pressure in play around those protest issues for the reasons that you would understand.
"But, of course, there is a right for journalists to go and report on those occasions and that shouldn't be prevented in any way."
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