44 charged after Just Stop Oil protests in Whitehall and National Gallery

Since October 30, 219 activists from the group have been arrested and 98 have been charged.

Just Stop Oil staged slow marches on Whitehall on Monday (Lucy North/PA) (PA Wire)

More than 40 Just Stop Oil (JSO) supporters have been charged after protesters blocked Whitehall and the glass covering a painting at the National Gallery was smashed.

Harrison Donnelly, 20, of Sillitoe Way, Nottingham, and Hanan Ameur, 22, of Hornsey Road, Islington, north London, have been charged with criminal damage after the protective glass on Diego Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus was smashed.

Another 42 JSO supporters have been charged with obstruction of the highway after two slow marches on Whitehall on Monday.

The demonstrations, part of JSO’s ongoing protest action against the Government granting new fossil fuel licences, saw more than 100 people arrested on Monday alone.

Since October 30, 219 JSO activists have been arrested and 98 have been charged.

The Metropolitan Police said: “Ultimately it is Londoners who are bearing the brunt and cost of Just Stop Oil’s disruption.”

Rokeby Venus was previously slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914.

On Wednesday, more than 55 JSO protesters marched on Waterloo Bridge, the group said, having travelled from South Wales and the north and south west of England.

The Metropolitan Police said an ambulance was caught in the traffic jam caused by the protest, as officers arrested activists in a bid to clear the road.

A group of five JSO supporters then staged a slow march on The Strand. The Met said officers were with them and making arrests.