Just Stop Oil activists told to stay away from Keir Starmer’s home after Christmas carol protest | Politics News

Just Stop Oil protesters who gathered outside the home of Sir Keir Starmer to sing climate change-inspired Christmas carols have been told not to return to the area for three months after being dispersed by police.

In footage shared on X, protesters were asked to leave the area surrounding the Labour leader’s house in north London on Thursday.

The group, which campaigns for no new oil, gas or coal, held up signs with slogans including “Revoke Rosebank” – a reference to the government’s decision to approve drilling at the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea – as well as “No new oil and gas”.

One member of the group read out a letter addressed to Sir Keir which accused the Labour leader of having “wavered in your commitment to show real leadership” on “ending new oil and gas projects in the UK”.

“How do you want to be remembered, Keir?” the letter continued.

“As the ghost of Christmas past? Or as the man who gave us a future?

“It is time for action, not words.”

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The Labour Party has promised that it will stop new North Sea oil and gas projects in the UK in what is seen as a clear dividing line with the Conservatives ahead of the next election.

But the group wants Sir Keir to go further by cancelling the new fossil fuel projects approved by Rishi Sunak, including Rosebank, which lies 80 miles west of Shetland and contains around 300 million barrels of oil.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that no arrests were made.

It comes just a month after Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters held a demonstration last month outside Mr Sunak’s west London home.

Earlier in the summer, fellow climate activist group Greenpeace held a protest at the prime minister’s mansion in North Yorkshire.

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Asked why Sir Keir’s family home had been targeted, a JSO spokeswoman told the PA news agency: “All of our homes should be places where we feel safe, and know that our families are secure.

“As any chance of [the world] staying below 1.5C of heating died this year, no one is now secure – in parliament, in an office or at home.”

The spokeswoman said politicians “are planning to make this worse”, adding: “We refuse to let them go home and forget about the day job.”

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “Police ordered the group to disperse under section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2021.

“There were no arrests.”