Three of the UK’s major airports have won an injunction to stop Just Stop Oil protesters from disrupting flights.
Stansted, East Midlands and Manchester Airports have all fallen victim to renegade plotters storming terminal buildings, gluing themselves to runways and climbing on jets.
The move comes after an undercover investigation by The Mail on Sunday revealed a plot by Just Stop Oil activists to disrupt flights this summer.
Two Just Stop Oil activists were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after appearing to spray orange paint over private jets at Stansted Airport – with one jet parked in the airfield thought to belong to singer Taylor Swift.
Timothy Morshead KC, acting for the airports, said JSO had ‘explicitly threatened a campaign of protest at the UK’s airports’ and there was an ‘imminent’ risk of blockades, obstructions and disruption.
Two activists were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after appearing to spray orange paint over private jets at Stansted Airport prompting a swift reaction from UK airports (File image)
Airports reacted to Just Stop Oil’s protests with a High Court injunction in a bid to protect flights this summer. Pictured: Manchester airport
Timothy Morshead KC, acting for the airports, said JSO there was an ‘imminent’ risk of blockades, obstructions and disruption to flights. Pictured: Manchester airport
In a post on X on June 20, Just Stop Oil said: ‘Jennifer and Cole cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted where @taylorswift13’s jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.’
On Friday, Judge Rosalind Coe KC granted the injunction against ‘persons unknown whose purpose is or includes protest on the premises’ in relation to the three airports.
She said while there are bylaws and criminal laws which may apply to such demonstrations, ‘they do not prevent the threat or the action that an injunction would’.
Judge Coe said the injunction will be reviewed after 12 months.
The High Court injunction comes just days after police rounded up 27 JSO activists who are suspected of plotting to disrupt airports this summer, as part of a ‘swift and robust’ co-ordinated police operation.
A total of 27 ‘key organisers’ of planned disruption have been held in London, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Essex, Manchester, Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk and West Yorkshire.
On Tuesday, four people were arrested and released on bail after being identified at Gatwick Airport, while on Thursday, six were arrested at an east London community centre as part of a publicly-advertised event promoting airport disruption.
Last week, 17 individuals were arrested at their homes across the country.
Protestors cause travel chaos at an airport (stock photo)
Activists smeared orange paint on a private jet on une 6 last year at Sylt Aiport in Germany
The arrests follow JSO’s attempts to ratchet up thei rprotests.
At a meeting, which was attended by an undercover MoS reporter, JSO co-founder Indigo Rumbelow was greeted by cheers as she told the audience: ‘We are going to continue to resist. We’re going to ratchet it up.
‘We’re going to take our non-violent, peaceful demonstrations to the centre of the carbon economy. We’re going to be gathering at airports across the UK.’
Ms Rumbelow, the 29-year-old daughter of a property developer, has previously been arrested for conspiracy to cause public nuisance during the King’s Coronation and made headlines last year when Sky News host Mark Austin had to beg her to ‘please stop shouting’ during an interview.
Outlining a blueprint for causing travel chaos, she advocated:
● Cutting through fences and gluing themselves to runway tarmac;
● Cycling in circles on runways;
● Climbing on to planes to prevent them from taking off;
● Staging sit-ins at terminals ‘day after day’ to stop passengers getting inside airports.
Miss Rumbelow told the crowd: ‘We’re going to be saying to the Government: ‘If you’re not going to stop the oil, we’re going to be doing it for you.”
Airports have now fought back against the planned chaos and hope that this injunction will stop protesters in their tracks.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Met Police said: ‘All the individuals were arrested under a section of the Public Order Act which makes it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure.
‘Among those held were several high-profile members of Just Stop Oil who we believe to be key organisers.
‘Met officers worked with more than eight other police forces to arrest suspects at their homes across the country. A total of 17 people were arrested.’
