Just Stop Oil protesters disrupt the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Two Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall tonight by running onto the stage tonight (14 July).
The pair were escorted off stage moments after storming it during what was the First Night of the Proms.
As they were being led away the audience booed and jeered, with many members shouting for the campaigners to be taken off the stage.
It said in a Tweet: âThe pair set off confetti cannons and sounded air horns, demanding the UK Government immediately halt all new oil and gas consents and licences.
âThey attempted to address the audience before being forcibly removed.â
The group â has has disrupted several major events this year in a bid to stop the Government granting new oil contracts â added its actions were as a result of the âBBCâs underwhelming coverage of the climate emergencyâ.
It said: âIn recent weeks, the BBC has been accused of âfalse balanceâ as well as uncritically regurgitating government and oil company propaganda.â
The group revealed the pair who disprupted the event was, Kate Logan, a 38-year-old mum of two from London and Pia Bastide, a 29-year-old community worker from London.
Ms Logan said: âMany years ago, I sang with a youth choir at the Albert Hall, never imagining I would one day disrupt a performance here to draw attention to the planetary crisis we find ourselves in. But thatâs what this has come to â our leaders and the press have failed us for decades and now itâs up to ordinary people to demand the changes we need.â
Ms Bastide added: âIâm sorry to harp on about it, but business as usual isnât working anymore. We can no longer ignore this crisis when extreme temperatures are scorching Europe right now. Last week, the Secretary General of the United Nations said that the climate crisis is âout of controlâ. I refuse to accept that my future is being sold away, one new oil licence at a time, and do nothing.â
In response to the incident, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer tweeted: âEco zealots shouldnât disrupt sports events, weddings or the Proms.
âMy message is this: Leave people to enjoy the events they love, and stop damaging your own cause.â
The group is calling on the government to stops licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects.
In a bid to force the government to change its policies, the group has tried to disrupt numerous high-profile events such as Wimbledon and the World Snooker Championships.
The group has also held several slow marches in London which have caused traffic chaos â prompting angry members of the public who were delayed as a result â to rip up protesterâs banners and dump them by the side of roads.
Last week the group vowed to carry on disrupting major sporting events such as Wimbledon until fossil fuel licenses stop being granted.
A spokesman for the group James Skeet said it would continue to hold protests until the Government makes a âmeaningful statementâ to halt any new licenses or consent for fossil fuel exploration in the UKâ.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves criticised the group on Sky Newsâs Sophy Ridge On Sunday: âI have got no time for Just Stop Oilâ.
Ms Reeves said she thought it was âpathetic and quite tediousâ to disrupt events, calling their processes âcounterproductiveâ and ârudeâ.
âPeople paid to go to Wimbledon, it may be the one time in their life that they get to Wimbledon, they donât want to be disrupted by a load of protesters.â
