Former Just Stop Oil donor Dale Vince says the group has become too extreme and does not agree with their demands to end fossil extraction by 2030

The millionaire former Just Stop Oil donor Dale Vince thinks the group has become too extreme and is ‘not a fan’ of their attempts to unleash a ‘summer of chaos’ at UK airports. 

The eco-entrepreneur and Forest Green Rovers owner said the eco-zealots blockading airports was ‘not valid’ and suggested there may no longer be a need for the environmental group. 

Vince, the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, also poured scorn over the group’s ‘impractical’ demands to end fossil fuel extraction by 2030 saying: ‘I don’t think that’s a sensible thing to ask for.’ 

It comes as Just Stop Oil announced a pause to its protest action in response to the violent riots that had been sweeping across Britain. 

Vince abandoned financial support for the group in October saying any future protests would be ‘pointless’ and ‘counterproductive’. 

The millionaire former Just Stop Oil donor Dale Vince thinks the group has become too extreme and is ‘not a fan’ of their attempts to unleash a ‘summer of chaos’ at UK airports

HEATHROW: Phoebe Plummer (left), 22, and Jane Touil, 58, after spraying orange paint on passenger information screens, the floor and walls inside Terminal 5 on July 30

HEATHROW: JSO’s poster girl Phoebe Plummer was one of those arrested during the protest on July 30 

He injected £5million into Labour in the 12 months before the election and says Just Stop Oil’s demands had been ‘won at the ballot box’ when the Tories were ousted, reported The Telegraph. 

‘I used to say, on the other side of the election … hopefully we just won’t need Just Stop Oil, because we’ll have stopped [new drilling for] oil through the ballot box by stopping the Tories,’ he said.

‘That was our campaign, just stop the Tories … there’s obviously no point disrupting now for no new licensing because that’s happening. We won that argument at the ballot box.’

He said given a date to cut off oil and gas was ‘arbitrary’ as the UK was not ready and instead said the logical thing to do was to ‘build like hell to the point we just stop using it’. 

‘We’ve just got a Labour government with a massive majority, and a mandate for a green economy,’ he said.

‘And I’m surprised that there are protests going on within weeks of that, and that there’s a kind of ramping up of demands.

‘I’m just surprised by that.’

But also hit out at the long prison sentences given to some campaigners with its ‘ringleader’ Roger Hallam being handed a five year term for organising protests that blocked the M25.

The eco-entrepreneur and Forest Green Rovers owner said the eco-zealots blockading airports was ‘not valid’ and suggested there may no longer be a need for the environmental group

Mr Vince pictured during the Restore Nature Now protest march in London on June 22

HEATHROW: A JSO activists sprays orange paint over the passenger information boards

GATWICK: JSO eco-zealots block the departures gateway at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal on July 29

He called on Sir Keir Starmer’s government to change the law that allow lengthy terms to be dished out, and said he was still a staunch supporter of having the right to protest. 

The eco-group announced on Wednesday it would temporarily halting its protests but warned that it cannot ‘afford to pause for more than is immediately necessary’.

And they claimed: ‘Just Stop Oil supporters take no pleasure in causing disruption, far from it, we find it deeply uncomfortable. However, we have to face reality, if we want to protect our loved ones, the wider public and generations to come.’

The announcement came 24 hours after five JSO activists were remanded to prison after being arrested near Manchester Airport.

Daniel Knorr, 22, Margaret Reid, 53, Ella Ward, 21, Noah Crane, 19, and Indigo Rumbelow, 30, were arrested on Monday in connection with a plot to disrupt passengers at the airport.

They were found to be in possession of items that Greater Manchester Police believed would have been used to ’cause damage and significant disruption to the airport and its operations’, the force said.

They appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court charged with intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance yesterday.

The five protesters were all remanded until at least their next appearance on September 10.

Mr Vince joins a JSO march in Westminster on June 8 last year. He has poured scorn over the group’s ‘impractical’ demands to end fossil fuel extraction by 2030

Vince abandoned financial support for the group in October saying any future protests would be ‘pointless’ and ‘counterproductive’

JSO have been targeting airports in recent weeks in the campaign named ‘Oil Kills’. Just Stop Oil said 21 groups across 12 countries have taken action at 21 airports so far.

Last week, a group of six demonstrators tried to block the security screening zone at London Heathrow’s Terminal Five.

They sat or stood holding signs saying ‘oil kills’ and ‘sign the treaty’ in front of the barriers to enter the area for departing passengers – but they were dragged away by police officers.

Another protest in the same Heathrow terminal two days earlier saw two Just Stop Oil activists arrested after they sprayed orange paint on departure boards.

The protest followed another at London Gatwick the day before when eight Just Stop Oil supporters were arrested for blocking departure gates.