Just Stop Oil “won’t need to be back” because Ed Miliband shares the eco-warriors’ “ideological obsessions” and has buckled to their demands, a former Tory MP has claimed. Earlier this month, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary confirmed the Government will ban all new oil and gas licences in the UK – Just Stop Oil’s central demand. Today, the climate group announced it is ending its campaign of direct action.

Reacting to the news that the eco-crusaders, who have blighted Britain’s streets since 2022, are “hanging up the hi-vis”, Bob Seely said: “I hope they won’t be back. On a serious note, with Ed Miliband in charge, they won’t need to be back. The guy is a disaster for jobs and manufacturing in this country and a disaster for the environment”.

The former Isle of Wight MP added: “All this clown’s ideological obsessions are leading to is the export of our industries to China, where they use coal-fired power – the most polluting on Earth – to sell us the stuff it’s too expensive to make here anymore”, he told Express.co.uk. “We should export Ed Miliband to China”, he quipped.

Mr Seely’s claim is supported by the International Trade Centre

 which shows that the UK’s main source of iron and steel products is China. In China, iron and steel products are typically made using coal.

Mr Seely wasn’t the only voice hoping Just Stop Oil doesn’t return. Addressing the environmentalists directly, Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “You managed to anger millions of people and put many lives at risk in a selfish, self-centred campaign, attacking works of art along the way. Utterly pointless.”

Reform UK’s Ann Widdecombe, once a Tory minister, also had a message for the green activists: “After causing so many people so much misery and after using up so many police resources, you will not be missed.”

Tobias Ellwood, the former Chair of the Defence Select Committee, told this website: “Throwing soup on masterpieces was never a winning strategy”. Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, said Just Stop Oil quitting was the “only sensible thing they have ever done”.

That view was shared by former Reform candidate Ben Habib, who said: “The best thing Just Stop Oil has done is just stop”.

Just Stop Oil’s final protest will be on April 26, when they host a sit-in outside Parliament. In a statement, the group said: “Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.

“So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets. But it is not the end of trials, of tagging and surveillance, of fines, probation and years in prison.

“We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.

“We are calling on everyone who wants to be a part of building the new resistance to join us for the final Just Stop Oil action in Parliament Square on April 26th.”