Revealed: Just Stop Oil activist who disrupted snooker with orange powder sells protests online for as little as £5

18 April 2023, 09:15 | Updated: 18 April 2023, 09:38

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

A Just Stop Oil protestor who covered a snooker table in orange paint during the World Championship offers his protestor services for as little as £5 a month.

Edred Whittingham, a Politics, Philosophy and Economics undergraduate at the University of Exeter, has four tiers of service, including highway obstruction, aggravated trespass and criminal damage.

He claims to have been arrested six times and says he asks for donations to pay for his weekly shop and monthly phone bill.

Meanwhile, the highest membership tier - worth £50 - is to provide him with "financial security" after his release from prison.

Whittingham caused chaos at a World Championship snooker game most recently on Monday night, covering a table in orange paint, but has been involved in a number of Just Stop Oil protests.

He was arrested on September 14, 2022, after taking place in a Just Stop Oil protest at Kingsbury Oil Terminal in Warwickshire.

The student was also arrested after gluing his hand to a painting at Manchester Art Gallery in July, also with Just Stop Oil.

Full cost of Just Stop Oil protestor's services

Level One: Highway Obstruction - £5

Level Two: Aggravated Trespass - £10

Level Three: Criminal Damage - £20

Level Four: Public Nuisance Conspiracy - £50

On his social media, Whittingham says he is in "civil resistance against the UK government" and "needs help".

Whittingham stopped the game between Robert Milkins and Mark Allen as the crowd booed him.

It came in the first stage of the 2023 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Read More: Eco activists halt World Snooker Championship at the Crucible with orange powder protest as angry crowd boos them off

Read More: Oil just stopped: Activists wrestled to the ground as they tried to spray-paint dinosaurs at exhibition

Security moved into to grab him off the table, while at the same time a female protester wearing a similar shirt leapt from the crowd and tried to get on a separate match.

However, staff managed to grab her and stop her from getting on the table.

Two people were arrested.

Just Stop Oil, which has made use of highly disruptive methods to get attention, said new oil and gas would "snooker us".

"At around 7:20pm, two Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, interrupting play," the group said.

"The pair proceeded to cover the tables in orange powder paint before being removed by security and arrested.

Whittingham's brother Hannes, a senior data scientist at AstraZeneca, gave five per cent of his salary last year to a climate fund finding against climate change.