Former GP is suspended for five months over protests to end fossil fuel extraction

A former GP and climate activist who spent 32 days in prison for breaching an injunction banning protests outside an oil terminal against the production and use of fossil fuels has been suspended from the UK medical register for five months.

Sarah Benn told a medical practitioners tribunal that she refused to remediate her conduct but intended to continue protesting until the government took urgent action to protect its citizens and future generations from the effects of climate breakdown. She said that she was “blowing my whistle as loud as I can.”

The tribunal emphasised that professional rules did not prevent doctors from engaging in peaceful protests but required them to comply with the law. Benn spent eight days on remand in custody for breaching the April 2022 injunction twice, in April and May that year, and was jailed for 32 days for contempt of court after breaching it again in the September.

The judge who jailed her for breaching the injunction a third time said that the Just Stop Oil protest had prevented people in the vicinity of the Kingsbury Oil Terminal in Warwickshire from going about their business and had caused a strain on police resources.

Rachel Birks, chairing …