The six activists sprayed orange paint from fire extinguishers on the Home Office, the MI5 building, the Bank of England and the headquarters of News Corp at London Bridge.

The buildings were chosen to represent the pillars that support and maintain the power of the fossil fuel economy – government, security, finance and media.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: “We are not prepared to stand by and watch while everything we love is destroyed, while vulnerable people go hungry and fossil fuel companies and the rich profit from our misery.

“The era of fossil fuels should be long gone, but the creeping tentacles of fossil fuel interests continue to corrupt our politics, government and the media as they have for decades.

“How else do you explain a government ignoring sensible no-brainer policies like renewables, insulation and public transport, which would cut our energy bills and our carbon emissions, in favour of corrupt schemes to drill for uneconomic oil and gas at taxpayers expense?

“Well we’re done with begging. We are acting to stop new oil and gas because it is the right thing to do. As citizens, as parents we have every right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love. The government has the power to end the disruption today by agreeing to stop new oil and gas licences and consents.”

Today’s stunt, which also included a roadblock, follows four weeks of protests by supporters, during which 637 arrests have been made by the police, and since the group’s campaign began on April 1st, supporters have been arrested over 1,900 times, the group said.

The Just Stop Oil protestors are calling on the government to stop all new oil and gas projects by 2025.