DOZENS of anti-oil campaigners gathered outside the High Court today to support activists fighting an attempt to obtain a “draconian” anti-protest injunction.

UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) is applying for an “unprecedented, wide-ranging” injunction against “persons unknown” and six named defendants to prevent peaceful protests at oil-drilling sites at Broadford Bridge in West Sussex and Horse Hill in Surrey.

The defendants’ lawyers have warned that granting the injunction would mean many forms of lawful protest would be “banned on a pre-emptive and blanket basis.”