Revealed: The eco mob plot to ruin the summer holidays with activists planning to disrupt flights by glueing themselves to major airport runways
Eco-zealots are plotting to ruin family holidays this summer by wreaking havoc at airports across the country.
An undercover investigation by The Mail on Sunday can reveal mobs of Just Stop Oil activists plan to storm terminal buildings to hold sit-ins, glue themselves to runways and even climb on to jets to paralyse the travel industry.
Tory MPs last night accused the group of harming their cause by 'targeting happiness with misery' and warned their cavalier plans could risk lives.
Blueprints for the summer of chaos – which aims to bring flights to a standstill day after day and destroy the holidays of 'ordinary people' – were unveiled at a strategy meeting of 100 hardcore campaigners in Birmingham last week.
At the meeting, which was attended by an undercover reporter, JSO co-founder Indigo Rumbelow was greeted by cheers as she told the audience: 'We are going to continue to resist. We're going to ratchet it up.
Eco-zealots are plotting to ruin family holidays this summer by wreaking havoc at airports across the country
Just Stop Oil activists plan to storm terminal buildings to hold sit-ins, glue themselves to runways and even climb on to jets to paralyse the travel industry
'We're going to take our non-violent, peaceful demonstrations to the centre of the carbon economy. We're going to be gathering at airports across the UK.'
Ms Rumbelow, the 29-year-old daughter of a property developer, has previously been arrested for conspiracy to cause public nuisance during the King's Coronation and made headlines last year when Sky News host Mark Austin had to beg her to 'please stop shouting' during an interview.
Outlining a blueprint for causing travel chaos, she advocated:
● Cutting through fences and gluing themselves to runway tarmac;
● Cycling in circles on runways;
● Climbing on to planes to prevent them from taking off;
● Staging sit-ins at terminals 'day after day' to stop passengers getting inside airports.
Miss Rumbelow told the crowd: 'We're going to be saying to the Government: 'If you're not going to stop the oil, we're going to be doing it for you.''
She cited similar protests to use as inspiration for their action, including Hong Kong students 'gathering in sit-ins in the entrances to airports, closing and disrupting them, day after day' during their protests against Chinese rule in 2019.
Protestors cause travel chaos at an airport
Activists smeared orange paint on a private jet Sylt Airport in Germany
JSO co-founder Indigo Rumbelow has cited other protests to use as an inspiration for their action
At the meeting she hailed German eco-activists who 'went on to runways, gluing their hands to the ground'
She said a blind friend of hers was jailed after he 'stood on top of a plane, disrupting tens of flights', and also hailed German eco-activists who 'went on to runways, gluing their hands to the ground'.
'So, close your eyes for a moment, be imaginative, and think about what we could do together,' Ms Rumbelow said. 'We can make this happen at scale this summer.'
Previous protests by the group have included halting traffic on busy roads, targeting an Ashes Test match at Lords and vandalising paintings at the National Gallery.
Ms Rumbelow said: 'We've all in this room disrupted ordinary people in the roads... disrupted ordinary people seeing cultural events, theatre, art shows, football games.
'The plan... could involve disrupting people on their holidays as well as business flights. It's not comfortable to disrupt ordinary people, but it's completely necessary because without that disruption we don't get anywhere.'
She concluded: 'Hope to see you in the summer on the runway.'
The Mail on Sunday recently exposed the activists' sinister plan to target MPs outside their homes. Last year, the MoS thwarted the plot by Animal Rebellion extremists to halt the Grand National at Aintree by storming the racetrack.
The latest plot is part of an overhaul of the structure of Just Stop Oil (JSO), with the formation of a new organisation called 'Umbrella' under which JSO will be one of four wings. It will also include a youth wing called Youth Demand, a political wing – Assemble – and one for socio-economic issues called Robin Hood.
Speaking about Youth Demand, JSO member Sam revealed: 'We're going to bring the fight to the politicians and the political parties.
'High-profile actions are going to be happening in March against politicians... and in April we've got this four-day action phase. I'm not going to say the details because we want them to be nice and unprepared waiting for us.'
Private jets and newspapers could be targets under the Robin Hood actions.
One activist, Mel, said: 'Ideas are maybe mass actions at financial institutions, maybe hitting places where billionaires go [such as] private airports and other eye-catching locations... yacht showrooms, is that a thing?
'The final idea is something around the failings of the billionaire-owned press. We should be blocking the printworks or marching on News International... I'm sure you've got some ideas.'
JSO's political 'pillar', Assemble, is looking at standing independent MPs at key constituencies that Labour needs to win in the General Election, and forming a 'House of the People' to be sworn in on the same day as the House of Commons.
Last night, Tory MP Gareth Johnson accused the group of 'targeting happiness with misery'.
Just Stop Oil co-founder Indigo Rumbelow at protests last year
Previous protests by the Just Stop Oil have included halting traffic on busy roads, targeting an Ashes Test match at Lords and vandalising paintings at the National Gallery
'They are creating misery for people trying to go about their daily life and get a well-earned break with their family and children.
'All it will do will make people angry with them and their cause. Everyone wants a clean environment but this is not the way. Running on to runways and climbing on the planes also sounds extremely dangerous and could risk lives.'
A JSO spokesman said: 'This summer, we will take action at airports to create enormous disruption and do what the rich and powerful won't: face the climate emergency and end fossil fuels.'
A spokesman for the Airport Operators Association, the trade body for UK airports, said: 'Aviation is working hard to decarbonise its activities... Instead of engaging in damaging and disruptive stunts like this, we'd call on environmental groups to work with the industry.'
Phoebe Plummer, the 'poster girl' of the Just Stop Oil movement
Plummer is a University of Manchester graduate who has been involved in several Just Stop Oil protests
Activist Phoebe Plummer, 22, being arrested and handcuffed by the Metropolitan Police in Vauxhall, south London
Phoebe Plummer laughing when told she was being arrested
Phoebe Plummer during a Just Stop Oil demonstration on Cromwell Road in Earls Court, west London
She was privately educated at £45,000-a year St Mary's School in Ascot, Berkshire, then £34,000-a-year Mander Portman Woodward College in Kensington, west London
In October 2022, Plummer was arrested for criminal damage and aggravated trespass after she and a friend - Anna Holland - threw Heinz tomato soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers in the National Gallery
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland as tomato soup is thrown across the painting
The pair of demonstrators glued themselves to the floor and needed to be unglued by specialist police officers
Eco lunatic Phoebe Plummer being carried away by police in London after blocking Trafalgar Square
Morons from Just Stop Oil launched an attack on the New Scotland Yard HQ in Westminster, hurling paint at the policing hub's sign
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