Tuesday 5 July 2022 11:30 AM Fuel protester builders, HGV drivers and farmers target London next trends now

Fuel protesters who brought motorways including the M4 to a standstill yesterday are plotting to shut down London at the end of the month and 'gridlock the whole city' in the battle to convince Boris Johnson to cut the price of petrol and diesel and save their businesses, MailOnline can reveal today.

Fuel Price Stand Against Tax (FPSAT) want to meet in Parliament Square at Midday on Friday July 22, after driving slowly through the capital during the morning rush hour.

It came as Priti Patel urged police to take a 'zero tolerance' approach and use tough new powers to stop them and said officers should arrest and charge the drivers behind the protests. The maximum penalty for 'wilful obstruction of a highway' was recently increased to six months in jail and an unlimited fine.

Previously the offence carried only a low fine, which the majority of eco protesters have faced, in a string of cases where police appeared to help them and one judge praised their commitment to green issues. On one occasion a police officer was filmed telling Insulate Britain to 'just be careful' because 'I don't want to put good people in a cell' having offered them 'another 10 minutes' to block a road in Birmingham. Yesterday fair fuel activists were surrounded by as many as 100 police officers, were arrested and had their vehicles towed.

One FPSAT member told MailOnline: 'Priti Patel is going for us - but all we want is a fair deal on fuel so we can do our jobs. Look at how the climate changes protesters have been treated. They cause chaos, are arrested and then released on bail the next day to do it all over again'.

Members have blasted the 'soft touch' approach police have taken against climate activists who have been given paltry fines or remain unpunished despite some individuals being arrested dozens of times in recent months for shutting down roads, oil refineries and even gluing themselves to British national treasures such at Constable's The Hay Wain at the National Gallery yesterday. On Sunday they stormed the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

A post on the FPSAT Facebook page, seen by MailOnline, says that on Friday July 22 supporters should 'meet your mates, congregate at Parliament Square, drive as slow as you can, gridlock the whole city, bring it to its knees, aim is to stay and not move until we get action'.

Yesterday 12 people were arrested on the M4 travelling slowly between England and Wales and another driver was arrested close to the A38 near Bristol. There were also delays the A92 in Scotland, the M5 in Devon, the M32, the M180 in Lincolnshire and the A64 near York. After the protests yesterday, it has seen a petition to slash fuel duty as a litre of diesel and unleaded hits £2 a litre is already through the 300,000 barrier.

Activists were surrounded by as many as 100 police officers with around 12 arrested on suspicion of driving at 10mph - less than the 30mph which had been agreed in advance. Their vehicles were placed in a highways patrol compound. It was in stark contrast to chaotic scenes when police failed to deal with Insulate Britain when they sat in the middle of major roads day after day.

The Government is said to fear the slow-moving convoys on major routes could become regular and see the start of a new movement akin to the gilets jaunes across the Channel, where working class protesters wearing yellow vests shut down France over economic problems.

Fuel Price Stand Against Tax members were arrested yesterday as Priti Patel urged police to throw the book at them while eco protesters causing months of chaos have received small fines or even praise from a judge for their commitment to green issues (bottom row). Welder Richard Dite, Vicky Stamper, 41, and farmer Andrew Spence (top row, left to right) say that they are protesting about fuel because they fear they will be put out of business

Louis McKechnie, a John Lennon lookalike ringleader of the Just Stop Oil movement, has already been arrested 20 times because of his professional protesting. But despite his many brushes with the law his must recent punishment was a £150 fine for wilfully obstructing a highway in central London.

McKechnie's partner in crime at an oil refinery protest this year, Matthew Powell, was fined £127 after he admitted aggravated trespass on April 10 at Exolum Storage Ltd.

Just Stop Oil protesters damaged Constable's The Hay Wain in gluing stunt

Hunt, 23, and Lazarus, 22, were involved in a romantic display after they glued themselves to the frame of one of Britain's greatest works of art

Just Stop Oil damaged Constable's masterpiece The Hay Wain in their latest stunt as MailOnline can reveal that one of the eco-vandals arrested at the National Gallery is a hypocrite yachtswoman who has racked up tens of thousands of carbon-belching air miles travelling the globe while lecturing on climate change.

Brighton students Hannah Hunt, 23, and Eben Lazarus, 22, were held after sticking large sheets of paper over the 200-year-old painting’s Suffolk landscape, replacing it with a scene of scorched trees, polluted skies, and discarded household waste - and then gluing their hands to the frame.

Hunt and Lazarus lectured the public on fossil fuels being a 'death project' and warning of the 'total collapse of society' yesterday, but Miss Hunt previously admitted she ‘impulse flew to the Canaries to escape chilly British weather’, MailOnline can reveal.

A spokesman for the National Gallery, confirmed the painting had been damaged, and said: 'Police attended and removed the protestors at around 4.40pm, and they were then arrested. The painting was removed from the wall to be examined by our Conservation team. The Hay Wain suffered minor damage to its frame and there was also some disruption to the surface of the varnish on the painting - both of which have now been successfully dealt with'.

The painting, considered John Constable's greatest work and a 'national treasure', will be rehung today. While its cultural value to the nation is priceless, the record price for a Constable at auction was £22.5million for The Lock ten years ago.

But it was the target of another attack by Just Stop Oil, who have recently moved from disrupting football matches and shutting down oil refineries to attacking pieces of art.

Biff Whipster, 54, admitted criminal damage after leaving a 'hard, crusty layer of glue' on the window of a police vehicle, in a case where the judge praised his commitment to greener living despite him and his friends disrupting the journeys of 18,000 drivers on the M25.

Catherine Maclean was charged with aggravated trespass after an incident at an oil terminal in Thurrock in April. She was fined just £400 despite action that saw some petrol stations run low on fuel.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon called for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to go further than the 5p per litre reduction in fuel duty implemented in March's Spring Statement, and said the growing wave of anger should not be ignored.

'I don't want anything that disrupts people in their ordinary lives,' he said. 'But I'm worried that this is a precursor to even more protests that are going to spread around the UK.

'If we're not careful, we're going to have a Canadian-style situation, with truck drivers descending on Parliament.'

Among those taking part in the Fuel Price Stand Against Tax protest yesterday was welder Richard Dite, who risked six points on his driving licence and a £200 fine by filming the convoy on his mobile phone from the wheel of his van.

Shouting 'give us our country back', the 44-year-old was among about half a dozen vehicles in a small procession - admitting it was 'not a very good turnout'.

He drives 30 miles from Maesteg to Cardiff for work daily, and said the cost is now 'upwards of £300' a week, having been around '£125 before the price increases'. 'I am on the verge of putting my gear in the shed,' he said, adding: 'I would be better off on the dole. That's not me. I am a worker. Something's got to happen.'

Martin Crowley, 48, from Cardiff, said he is a self-employed exotic animal courier and fuel prices are damaging his livelihood. 'Fuel cost me £280 over two days last week. It's unbelievable,' he said. 'You can hardly make a living anymore.'

Also taking part was Vicky Stamper, 41, a former HGV driver from Cwmbran, South Wales, said: 'We had to leave those jobs because it was costing us £380 a week just to get to and from work'.

Farmer Andrew Spence, who targeted a Shell plant at Jarrow, South Tyneside, in demonstrations when Tony Blair was prime minister 22 years ago, claimed yesterday's action was 'just the start of things to come'.

'We're promising a summer of discontent - this is only going to get bigger and bigger,' he said.

Mr Spence, 55, from County Durham, said the advent of sites such as Facebook had transformed his ability to mobilise people angered by rising fuel prices.

'Social media is what makes people stand up and take notice,' he said. 'That's something we didn't have in the early 2000s.'

Mr Spence said blockades of refineries had 'not been ruled out', adding: 'We're promising a summer of discontent - this is only going to get bigger and bigger.' He is planning a protest in Newcastle.

Priti Patel last night urged police to use tough new powers to stop fuel protesters bringing Britain's roads to a halt.

Why are fuel prices so high? As we race towards petrol at £2-a-litre, here's what's sparked the record cost of filling up... and why it isn't falling

How much does petrol and diesel cost today?

At the time of publishing, the average price of petrol has hit at an all-time high, which has been an almost daily occurrence in the last few weeks.

Diesel also isn't far short of its steepest price on record.

On Sunday 3 July, the UK average for petrol hit a new record 191.53p a litre, while diesel hung on to record levels at 199.03p a litre - just a fraction short of the all-time high of 199.07p set on Friday 1 July.

What makes the price of fuel change?

What motorists pay at the pumps is determined by a number of factors that make-up the overall price of petrol and diesel. However, the single biggest influence is the price of crude oil.

This had a major impact on what is charged for 'wholesale' petrol and diesel - the price paid by fuel companies.

Experts from the AA and RAC have repeatedly accused the industry of 'rocket and feather pricing': quickly passing rising wholesale prices onto consumers but not cutting them as urgently when the fall.

What else determines the price of fuel?

And other factors are also at play when it comes to the price of petrol and diesel.

This includes the cost of biofuel content used in the manufacturing of both fuel types that is designed to make them more environmentally friendly.

Also adding to the pump price calculation is the cost of transporting the fuel, retailer profit margins and last - but no means least - taxation.

In fact, petrol and diesel is taxed twice in the UK: the first is fuel duty of 52.59p paid on every litre of fuel, which is then also taxed at 20 per cent for VAT.

It means over 40 per cent of what drivers currently pay at the pump is taxation.

What sparked fuel prices to escalate dramatically?

Cast your mind back 12 months and the price of petrol and diesel was 130.5p-a-litre and 133p respectively at the start of July 2021. But prices were on the brink of a rise.

The combination of a fuel supply crisis, panic buying and rising oil meant petrol and diesel prices in October had eclipsed previous record highs that had existed since April 2012.

But it was the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February that triggered the cost of filling up to skyrocket.

Russia is one of the world's largest oil exporters, but the fallout from its invasion of Ukraine has resulted in sanctions on Russian products.

Should fuel prices be lower than what they are?

The RAC says the price of petrol in particular should already be much lower than what it currently is after five weeks of decline wholesale prices.

Simon Williams, the motoring organisation's fuel price expert, says major supermarkets are playing a key role in keeping costs high by failing to make reductions when they can.

'The average cost of delivered unleaded was 145.7p a litre last week which after adding 7p a litre retailer margin and 20 per cent VAT produces a price of 183p,' explains Williams.

'Despite this the big four supermarkets, which dominate fuel sales, are standing firm with a litre of petrol at their stores costing an average of 190.19p.

'We would love to hear their reasoning for keeping their prices so high in this instance, but we've never known them publicly defend themselves.

'Far too often it's the smallest retailers, who sell far less fuel combined despite having more forecourts, that stand up for the industry.'

The AA's Luke Bosdet says it is 'very hard' to understand why forecourts aren't bringing down prices.

'Perhaps it's supermarkets using higher fuel costs to pay for their 'Aldi-matching' offers, and then local oil company-branded sites feeling no pressure to bring down their prices,' he told This is Money.

'Maybe it's a carbon copy of what happened in the run-up to the 23 March fuel duty cut [read about this below]: wholesale prices had been falling but the fuel trade kept piling on increases at the pump, in the expectation that the Government would fork out the savings though a duty cut.

'Or, perhaps, it's because fuel customers have stopped buying sweets and coffee when they go to pay for their petrol and diesel … which is why a pump price cut might entice them to resume those habits.

'Our concern is that, because petrol demand is still 94 per cent of what it would normally be, both the supermarket and non-supermarket sites think that most of their customers can take the hit.

'That means they are taking us for fools.'

Will fuel prices come down soon?

Despite experts thinking fuel prices should already be lower, there could be another huge spike in the