Just Stop Oil blocks Pride in the London parade -TGN

Just Stop Oil protesters stopped the Pride in London parade (Just Stop Oil on Twitter)

Just Stop Oil blocked the Pride in London parade by lying in front of the floats and spraying black paint on the road.

The Metropolitan Police arrested seven people in connection with the incident before the parade could continue its route through the capital.

The environmental campaign group threatened to take action against the organizers of the annual Pride event if they failed to comply with their demands, including providing details of their sponsorship details and issuing a statement urging the termination of new gas and oil contracts.

The move follows several other high-profile demonstrations by the environmental group, during which they disrupted the cricket test match at London’s Lord’s and the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield, as well as blocking major roads in and around London.

On Friday (June 30), the environmental campaign group announced they would protest in Parliament Square, but on Saturday afternoon (July 1), the day of Pride in London, footage shared by Just Stop Oil showed activists disrupting the parade.

Activists marched in front of the parade route around 1:30 p.m. and laid down on the floor in front of the Coca Cola wagon, spraying the road with black paint and chanting “just stop oiling.”

Police had to intervene to remove the demonstrators and arrested seven people before the parade could continue at around 1:47 p.m.

The group shared information about the demonstration on Twitter, saying “LGBTQ+ supporters of Just Stop Oil today took action against Pride in London as the organization collaborates with industries complicit in exacerbating the climate crisis”.

Prior to disrupting the event, a Just Stop Oil activist spoke to PinkNews about their protest and reason for taking action against Pride.

Sean, a safety facilitator at Just Stop Oil, said companies are using the queer community to “greenwash” themselves and the “pink pound” to protect themselves from criticism of their environmental practices.

“(London Pride) is not representing gay communities by taking on sponsors from companies like this. These companies fund the Tory Party and other Conservative governments around the world for the rest of the year.

“Putting up a Pride flag once a year and saying you are allies is not true. If you’re an ally, act like one.”

In response to the action, the official Pride in London Twitter account issued a statement: “We are aware of a protest group disrupting the parade. @MetPoliceEvents fixed this issue and we continued the parade.

“#PrideinLondon is a place for equality and we make sure everyone feels safe and enjoys the day.”

Pride in London has been contacted for comment.