A WORKING GP has been imprisoned for a year after taking part in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25.

Dr Patrick Hart disabled Esso petrol pumps at Thurrock services on the motorway in August 2022.

The action demanded an end to new oil and gas licences, a policy that has since been adopted by the government.

Dr Hart appeared before Judge Alexander Mills at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday after being found guilty of criminal damage last October.

Bizarrely, he stands to be penalised three times for the action. 

Since the petrol station was subject to a private injunction, Dr Hart already faced civil charges for the action and has been fined. 

He will also face a tribunal convened by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

Before sentencing, Dr Hart, who is Britain’s first working GP to be imprisoned for such a protest, said: “All healthcare workers have a responsibility to protect the health of their patients. 

“If we do not stand up to the oil and gas executives who are wreaking havoc on our climate and the politicians who enable them, if we do not end the burning of fossil fuels, then we will have failed as a profession and the health systems that we have developed over centuries will collapse. 

“I will continue to fight against the death sentence of fossil fuels for as long as I have strength in me. I have no greater duty as a doctor at this moment in history.”