MORE than 1,200 artists, athletes, academics, politicians and trade unionists have urged Labour to address five Just Stop Oil activists suffering “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history.”

The famous names backed calls by millionaire Labour donor Dale Vince and broadcaster Chris Packham for an urgent meeting with the government to discuss “the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.”

Trade union leaders and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP were among the signatories to their open letter to Attorney General Richard Hermer KC.

In it they hit out at the jailing of Roger Hallam, 58, Cressida Gethin, 22, Daniel Shaw, 38, Lucia Whittaker de Abreu, 35, and Louise Lancaster, 58, known as the Whole Truth Five, over demonstrating on the M25 for four days on 2022.

The letter said: “With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity?

“The sentences, ranging from four to five years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.”

Mr Corbyn said he signed the letter “in disgust” over the “draconian” sentences of the climate protesters.

He asked: “What is the bigger crime: destroying our planet of profit, or asking the world to wake up and act?

“We cannot let this miscarriage of justice stand.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced calls to intervene in the case while UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk described the sentences — thought to be the longest sentences ever given for peaceful protest —  as “deeply troubling.”

Mr Hallam was sentenced to five years after being found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for his involvement in the protest, which saw 45 people climb onto gantries over the motorway.

The other four were jailed for four years over the demonstration.

Len McCluskey and Kevin Courtney, former leaders of Unite and the National Education Union respectively, were among the signatories, alongside top human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court heard that the M25 protests had led to an economic cost of at least £765,000 while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.

Prosecutors also alleged they caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay.