Watch: Just Stop Oil poster girl who threw soup on Van Gogh painting sprays paint at Heathrow
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Protesters from Just Stop Oil, including an activist awaiting sentencing for throwing soup over a Van Gogh painting, have sprayed orange paint around Heathrow Airport.
Two members of the group reportedly sprayed information boards, windows and the floor in Terminal 5’s departures area on Tuesday morning in orange paint.
It comes a day after activists tried to obstruct the entrance to Gatwick Airport’s security screening area by glueing themselves to the floor.
The protest group, which is calling on the Government to establish a “fossil fuel treaty”, vowed last week to use “all means necessary” to disrupt summer holidays.
One of the protestors is Phoebe Plummer, 22, who was freed on bail this week after being found guilty of causing criminal damage to Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers in 2022.
She and an accomplice threw Heinz tinned soup over the painting.
Plummer said: “This is an international problem, so ordinary people are doing what our politicians will not, working together globally to put a stop to the harm and suffering that fossil fuels cause.”
Pictures published on Tuesday by Just Stop Oil show orange paint splattered over a section of the floor, half a dozen departure screens and a window inside Terminal 5.
Jane Touil, another Heathrow protester, said: “Ordinary people have to stand up and make their governments do the right thing, because without pressure from us, they won’t. I feel so angry and betrayed that politicians have let this happen when they’ve known about climate breakdown for over 50 years.”
Both protestors used fire extinguishers filled with orange paint to spray the substance around the Terminal 5 departure area.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that two arrests had been made on suspicion of criminal damage and that officers remained on the scene.
Just Stop Oil claimed that both of its protestors had been “dragged to a police van” at 8.50am.
A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “Working with partners we have quickly resolved a protest incident in Terminal 5 and all involved have been removed from the airport. The airport continues to operate as normal and passengers are travelling as planned.
“We are in full agreement that the aviation industry needs to decarbonise, but unlawful and irresponsible protest activity is not the way forward and will not be tolerated.”
Earlier this month airport bosses obtained a High Court injunction that bans Just Stop Oil and other environmental campaigners from entering the airport. It does not come with a power of arrest, however, a police spokesman confirmed.
