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Fury has been sparked in central London after Just Stop Oil protesters shut down a major road and sprayed paint over a luxury car showroom.
Pictures show the Aston Martin showroom covered in orange, with demonstrators glued to nearby Park Lane in Westminster.
Others locked themselves together and held large orange banners after launching the roadblock around 11am on Sunday.
The protest didn’t impress drivers in the area, with one motorist bellowing at them: ‘People have got f***ing work to go to’ while another shouted ‘people are trying to go to hospital’.
The campaigners are calling for the Government to halt all new oil and gas licences and consent.
Just Stop Oil tweeted that the action was to ‘defy’ Home Secretary Suella Braverman on the day she unveiled plans to crack down on these kinds of protests.
It comes days after a tin of soup was thrown over Van Gogh’s famous Sunflower painting in a protest at the National Gallery in London.
Police officers were seen trying to talk to those blocking the road while a cordon was set up around the activists.
Police officers stand near a Just Stop Oil demonstrator as paint surrounds them (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
The showroom was covered in orange paint (Picture: PA)
Police officers remove Just Stop Oil demonstrators blocking traffic (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
Chloe Thomas, 19, a pregnant mother and freelancer from Cannock who joined the action, said: ‘How do I explain to my daughter in the years to come where the animals went, where the culture went, where the beauty went, why there are no bees and why I can’t put food in her tummy?
‘You know it’s bad, don’t you? As citizens, as humans, as parents and children we have a responsibility and a right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love.’
Patrick Michael John McCarthy, 67, a carer from Telford, who was also at the protest, said: ‘Please understand these actions are not easy for any of us.
‘It is uncomfortable, sometimes frightening and financially draining, so why do it?
‘Because we have seen the devastating truth about the existential threats we face and cannot “unsee” that. The real question is why millions aren’t in civil resistance rather than why I am.
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They are calling for the Government to halt all new oil and gas licences and consent.