Three arrested after Just Stop Oil spray orange paint over London’s Wellington Arch

Protesters set off smoke flares and sprayed paint with fire extinguishers

Three people have been arrested after Just Stop Oil protesters sprayed orange paint over Wellington Arch in London.

The protesters set off smoke flares and sprayed paint on the Grade I listed structure using fire extinguishers shortly after 10am on Wednesday.

One of the activists, Joshua Lane, a 26-year-old engineer from Sheffield, said he felt “compelled to take action”.

Just Stop Oil protestors sprayed orange paint over Wellington Arch in London on Wednesday morning (Tom Bowles)

“Future generations live in uncertainty, and we are given false promises time after time by endless pantomime governments,” he said.

“Humanity faces the biggest crisis in history, and yet the government continuously ignores the facts, and only thinks of themselves and the billionaire oil barons they serve.

“One thing that cannot be ignored is the power of ordinary people, and our voices are only continuing to grow louder.”

Wellington Arch, also known as the Constitution Arch or Green Park Arch, is a Grade I-listed triumphal arch designed in central London (Just Stop Oil/X)

Another activist, 40-year-old Joe Hogan from Hertfordshire, said: “I’m angry. I’m anxious. I’m depressed. We are out of time; we have to act now.

“But our government continues with business-as-usual, burning our futures to enrich their friends, while enacting draconian legislation to stamp out dissent.

“I refuse to be cowed. Traditional, managed, sanitised forms of protest have done nothing; the only way forward is through sustained, disruptive civil resistance.”

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police added: “Officers that were nearby immediately responded.

“Three people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.”

The protestors set off smoke flares and sprayed the paint using fire extinguishers (Ianthe Butt/X)

The protest comes after three other JSO supporters were each given a 12-month community order and 60 hours’ unpaid work for invading the pitch at Lords cricket ground.

Judit Murray, 69, Daniel Knorr, 21, and Jacob Bourne, 27, were sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for stopping play during the second Test between England and Australia on June 28.

England player Jonny Bairstow carried Knorr off the pitch, champagne corks and fruit were thrown by cricket fans at Bourne as he was led off the field, and Murray was tackled before she could reach the wicket and held down on the grass.

In a separate case at the High Court, 12 JSO supporters are accused of breaching a court injunction by staging protest action on the M25 in November last year.

On Tuesday 76-year-old grandmother Gaie Delap, from Bristol, told the judge in the hearing, Mr Justice Soole, that she had climbed on to a motorway gantry because the “climate emergency” was not being taken seriously enough.