Following a three-day jury trial, two members of Just Stop Oil have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage at London Pride 2023. During the event on July 1, 2023, supporters of the climate action group sprayed black and pink paint over the Coca-Cola float taking part in the parade.

Just Stop Oil, known for its headline-grabbing demonstrations, had warned organisers the day before that it would take action if its demands were not met. These demands included revealing details of the event’s sponsors and issuing a public statement calling for an end to new oil and gas contracts.

During the parade, protesters moved into the road at Piccadilly, halting the procession. They sprayed black paint onto the street and lay in front of floats, chanting: “Just stop oil!” The Metropolitan Police arrested seven people on the day. The following day, five were charged under the Public Order Act for behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress.

Two of those activists, Arthur Clifton and Guido Wieser, appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London, where they were found not guilty of causing criminal damage in relation to the Pride protest.

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Prior to the trial, Just Stop Oil issued a statement, in which one of the accused, Arthur Clifton, criticised major corporations for “destroying my generation’s future” while using Pride “to try and hide this”. He described the practice as “beyond evil,” and added, “As long as the government keeps siding with world-ending businesses, we all need to step up and act.

Just Stop Oil’s past actions include spraying orange paint on a robot at a Tesla showroom, interrupting a performance of Les Misérables in London’s West End, and throwing soup over Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery.

The group campaigns for an immediate end to new UK oil and gas projects, warning that as global temperatures head towards 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the 2030s, the world faces mass displacement, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe.

At 1pm on the same day as the 2023 Pride protest, a separate group of Just Stop Oil supporters began a Pride-themed slow march from Parliament Square. Spokesperson James Skeet said, “It is queer people, and particularly queer people of colour in the global south, who are suffering first in this accelerating social breakdown. What would those who instigated the gay liberation movement, during the Stonewall riots in 1969, make of the corporatised spectacle Pride has now become?”

The verdict comes shortly after the Labour government pledged to end new oil and gas projects, a core demand of Just Stop Oil.

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