THE Communist Party of Britain has called for the prison sentences imposed on Just Stop Oil protesters to be scrapped.

Five defendants, dubbed the Whole Truth Five, were jailed for a total of 21 years last week under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.”

They had disrupted M25 motorway traffic in a non-violent protest against Britain’s renewed oil and gas drilling programme in November 2022.

CP women’s organiser Carol Stavris told the party’s political committee on Wednesday night that the protesters should be released and the Act scrapped. 

She highlighted that in July 2021, Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds had condemned the legislation because it “destroys the fine British tradition of protecting the right to protest.”

Ms Stavris urged the new Labour government to legislate in the light of this week’s report on violence against women and girls, commissioned by the National Police Chiefs Council. 

The report identifies such violence as a “national emergency” affecting at least one in 12 women each year.