Vegan GP, ​​57, jailed for taking part in Just Stop Oil protest says she will continue breaking the law because ‘my actions are justified’ in the face of an ‘unprecedented climate crisis’

A GP jailed over peaceful climate protests has said she will continue to break the law.

Dr. Sarah Benn, 57, in August became the first GP to be struck off the medical register by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for actions linked to climate activism.

But in an interview with the British Medical Journal, the Birmingham doctor said she would not stop being an activist.

She told the BMJ that her mission as a doctor was to promote health and save lives and that it was therefore necessary to sound the alarm about global warming.

Dr. Benn was convicted after protesting against the government’s granting of new permits for oil drilling in the North Sea.

She held a sign outside the Kingsbury Oil Terminal in Warwickshire, in violation of an injunction granted to US oil company Valero, which specifically banned protests against the production and use of fossil fuels outside the terminal.

She spent eight days in pre-trial detention, and after breaching it again in September 2022, she was jailed for 32 days for contempt of court. But Dr. Benn said she is ready to go back to prison.

She said: ‘I will definitely be free again and do things that could break the law (and) possibly land me back in prison. That is not the intention, but I cannot simply say: “The government has this”.

“As physicians, we are expected to protect life and health; we need to advocate for patients.”

She added: ‘The world is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the danger of climate and environmental collapse, and I believe my actions are a justified and proportionate attempt to raise the alarm about the severity and urgency of the situation.’

Dr Benn’s license to practice will be reassessed in September, after which she may be struck off.

Dr. Benn, from Harborne, Birmingham, told the BMJ: ‘I don’t feel guilty. I don’t feel I’ve disgraced the profession, and I think I could explain myself very well to anyone who thought I had.”

She added: ‘The world is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the danger of climate and environmental collapse, and I believe my actions are a justified and proportionate attempt to raise the alarm about the severity and urgency of the situation.

‘All the science is absolutely shocking: the planet is on track to warm 2°C (above pre-industrial levels), if not more.

‘We need to do something very radical and urgent to protect our coral reefs and Arctic sea ice and stop deadly heat waves, but that’s not happening. The inaction is just shocking.”

Dr. Benn has worked as a GP in inner-city Birmingham for most of her career. She also worked as a GP trainer and tutor.

She has worked remotely for NHS 111 during the Covid pandemic, the Worcestershire COVID Management Service and on site in her practice.

She continued to work as a GP at Hollyoaks Medical Center in Birmingham until 2022.

Dr. Benn was convicted after protesting against the government’s granting of new permits for oil drilling in the North Sea

Dr. Benn retired in April 2022 and gave up her practicing license later that year, although she said she was keen to remain on the medical register because being a doctor was a “core part of her identity”, she told the BMJ. .

However, the General Medical Council has made it clear that the tribunal’s decision had nothing to do with climate change, but because Dr. Benn broke the law.

A spokesperson said: ‘Our suitability to conduct investigations takes into account cases referred to us where doctors have broken the law, not their motivation for doing so.’

Dr. Benn, who is married and vegan, says she doesn’t fly, buys second-hand goods and is a “goody two shoe” at school. She became a climate activist in April 2019 after meeting Extinction Rebellion protesters.

Dr. Benn said she believes the GMC needs to rethink its rulebook when it comes to climate change cases.

“Times have changed – we are facing an existential threat to humanity,” she says.

‘I’m not asking for his resignation or for the decision to be reversed, but I think the GMC needs to wake up and investigate why this happened. And how they might need to change things for the next doctor in my position that comes before them.”