Just Stop Oil protests have cost the Metropolitan Police more than ￡7.7 million in the past 13 weeks, the equivalent of the annual salary of around 200 officers.

       Figures released by the force reveal the cost of policing 515 protests carried out by Just Stop Oil (JSO) since April, including slow marches in major roads in London and the disruption of high-profile sporting events.

       More than 270 people have been arrested over the period with Matt Twist, the assistant commissioner, warning the disruption was “not protest, but crime”.

       Over 150 officers have also been taken away from community policing tasks to help control the demonstrations.

       The latest figures are on top of the ￡7.5 million spent by the force policing protest action by JSO between October and December last year.

       Speaking on LBC on Monday, AC Twist said: “This is really unique in protest terms. In any democratic society, the right to protest is, rightly, heavily protected.

       “It’s something the Met well understands in terms of rights under article 9, 10 and 11 under the Human Rights Act, critically important rights.

       “But this isn’t protest, this is crime, and there is a difference.

       “The right to protest is very strongly protected, but when you get into very deliberately causing serious disruption to the public of London, stopping people going about their daily business, stopping people going to work, or to hospital, or taking their children to school, then that tips over into crime.”

       As well as marching in main roads, Just Stop Oil activists have disrupted events including the British Open, Wimbledon, the Ashes, the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship.

       They also took action at the Chelsea Flower Show and the London Pride march, disrupted filming of the Channel 4 show The Last Leg, and sprayed orange paint on the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero building in central London.

       JSO protesters interrupted play twice at Wimbledon by throwing orange-coloured confetti and jigsaw pieces onto court 18.

       The contest between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro was targeted by two protesters.

       A third protester then targeted Katie Boulter’s match against Daria Saville. Two men and a woman were arrested.

       Jonny Bairstow, the England wicket keeper, resorted to physically carrying a protester off the pitch during the second Test at Lords.

       Pranksters disrupt JSO banquet

       Last week, two YouTube pranksters disrupted a vegan banquet hosted by JSO and unmasked themselves as the masterminds behind a counter-protest movement against the eco-activists.

       Joshua Pieters and Archie Manners claimed responsibility for the stunt at the Heritage and Arts Centre in Bow, east London, where Just Stop Oil threw a meal for its supporters on Sunday.

       In a plot designed to sabotage the event, actors infiltrated the venue before setting off panic alarms, attached to helium-filled balloons, which blared out noise as they rose to the roof.

       The YouTubers previously disrupted the group’s activities in Elephant and Castle when they formed a human chain around a group of JSO supporters to stop them from slow marching.

       The YouTubers and the “counter protesters” wore T-shirts with the message: “Just Stop P---ing People Off”.