Just Stop Oil protesters Hannah Hunt and Eben Lazarus glue their hands to the frame of The Hay Wain by John Constable after first covering the painting with their own picture at the National Gallery in London

A trial date has been set for two Brighton students who glued themselves to the frame of John Constable’s masterpiece The Hay Wain.

Music student Eben Lazarus, 22, and psychology student Hannah Hunt, 23, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, in London, today (Wednesday 31 August).

They are due to be tried at the same court on Thursday 3 November charged with causing more than £1,000 of criminal damage.

The two Just Stop Oil protesters glued themselves to the frame at the National Gallery on Monday 4 July.

They attached three large sheets of paper to the painting, depicting their own version of “an apocalyptic vision of the future” of Constable’s iconic landscape.

It featured an old car dumped in front of the mill in the painting and the Hay Wain cart carrying an old washing machine.

Lazarus and Hunt denied causing criminal damage to the 200-year-old masterpiece, which was painted in 1821.

Hunt said after the protest: “There is glue on the frame of this famous painting but there is blood on the hands of our government.

“The disruption will end as soon as the UK government makes a meaningful statement that will end new oil and gas licences.”

She was one of the founders of the Just Stop Oil protest group in February and went to Downing Street with a letter for the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Last week another Brighton student, 22-year-old Sophie Sharples, was among dozens arrested during protests at service stations on the M25 motorway.

In all, police arrested 137 protesters from Just Stop Oil last week, according to Mail Online.

The news website said that 1,296 people had been arrested since the latest campaign started at the start of April, with campaigners calling on the government to end new oil and gas projects.

Just Stop Oil has also warned that it plans to occupy Westminster from Monday 3 October.

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