A popular UK comedian was mistaken as the ringleader of a Just Stop Oil demonstration in London yesterday.
While struggling to get from one job to another, Rob Beckett accidentally ended up at the front of a demonstration, and was even interviewed by national News.
“Well that was an absolute disaster,” joked Beckett in a TikTok video that has been liked by almost 300,000 people.
The comedian was en route to work when the “electric cab” he was travelling in had to stop due to the protestors.
It meant Beckett, who was decked out in a lurid pair of Crocs shoes, was forced to walk the remaining way, past the Just Stop Oil activists.
But as he tried to make his way past them, he was swept up in the action and mistaken as the leader of the protest march.
On TikTok he said: “I ended up being in, by accident, the Just Stop Oil march, and then ITV News interviewed me and then all the paparazzi started taking photos of me. I’ve got a tracksuit on and Crocs!
“I said ‘I’m not in the march!’, but I was in the march because I was with all the people. Then I got to the front and they started filming me, and it looked like I s leading the march!”
@robbeckettcomic The accidental activist.
He added: “It looked mental, I hope it’s not going to go on the tele. But yeah, at one point, I was, by accident, leading a protest through Whitehall. Different start to a Monday morning!”
Unfortunately for Beckett, his unwanted appearance at the Just Stop Oil protest did indeed feature on ITV News later that day.
“It’s so exhilarating being an activist,” he laughed. “I don’t know what it was. It was for oil, I don’t know if it was pro or against. I don’t know if it was crude or cooking. But either way, oil is big news.”
@robbeckettcomic Part 2 of the accidental activist.
Just Stop Oil disrupted traffic in Westminster again today for the fourth day running.
Organised to coincide with the upcoming offshore licensing round, protestors are demanding an end to new oil and gas.
The group chanted “no new oil” outside Downing Street before marching in the road towards Parliament Square where they set up roadblocks.