Fact Check: Just Stop Oil arrests unrelated to London’s Cenotaph

Pictures online of Just Stop Oil protesters laying handcuffed next to the Cenotaph in central London have been falsely claimed online to show arrests resulting from an attack on the war memorial.

The photographs, shared widely on messaging platform X (archived), formerly known as Twitter, and on Facebook (archived) have captions saying the activists targeted, attempted to desecrate, or daubed the Cenotaph in graffiti (archived) during a Just Stop Oil demonstration on Nov. 6.

“Just Stop Oil morons have just attempted to desecrate the Cenotaph. Immediate jail for the lot of them…” said one X user sharing the photo.

In a statement posted to X (archived), London’s Metropolitan Police said: “Around 100 arrests were made by officers along Whitehall during another day of disruption by Just Stop Oil.

“These arrests were made for breaching Section Seven of the Public Order Act at various points between Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, including near to the Cenotaph…

“There were no offences linked to the Cenotaph.”

The police clarified in an email to Reuters that the Just Stop Oil protest was not linked to the Cenotaph, and that this was just where some arrests took place.

In an X post (archived) replying to a journalist saying the activists invaded the war memorial, Just Stop Oil said: “You’ve just lied. They were marching towards Parliament Square before being arrested and dragged off the road by police, acting under new, anti-protest laws.”

Just Stop Oil was not immediately available for comment.

Misleading. Police said there were no offences linked to the war memorial during the Nov. 6 Just Stop Oil protests; it was just where some arrests took place.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.

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