An MP has called for Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled the Dartford Crossing to be treated as a terrorist organisation.

The Town's MP Gareth Johnson asked Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions if he would consider proscribing the environmental group.

Speaking this morning, Mr Johnson, a former lawyer and Justice minister, said: "Mr Speaker last month Just Stop Oil clambered up the Dartford Crossing causing chaos for days.

"They then attacked art works, the M25 and anything else to cause misery and mayhem.

"These people are not protesters – they are criminals."

It comes after the controversial eco-campaigners brought the Crossing and large sections of the M25 to a standstill last month.

The protest caused miles of congestion and traffic with some Just Stop Oil members climbing motorway gantries and others scaling the Dartford Bridge itself.

The Dartford MP asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: "Will the Prime Minister therefore consider making Just Stop Oil a proscribed organisation so they can be treated as the criminal organisation they actually are?

To which the PM replied: "Mr Speaker the kind of demonstrations we have see recently disrupt people's daily lives, they cause mass misery to the public and they put people in danger.

"The police have our full support in their efforts to minimise this disruption and tackle reckless and illegal activity."

Mr Sunak said his government’s Public Order Bill would give them the power to do this and called for cross-party support.

Under current laws the home secretary can proscribe an organisation if he or she believes they are “concerned in terrorism", and it is proportionate to do.

For the purposes of the Act, this means that the organisation "commits or participates in acts of terrorism".

There are currently 78 terrorist organisations proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 in the UK and 14 organisations in Northern Ireland that were proscribed under previous legislation.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is one such organisation currently proscribed by the Home Office.

While proscription has been seen as serving as a powerful deterrent, questions have been raised over its function in combating terrorism and its compatibility with the rule of law.

Mr Johnson's comments come as two members of the group wer found guilty yesterday of damaging the frame of a Van Gogh painting in London’s Courtauld Gallery.

But his calls for a crackdown on protests sparked anger among some MPs and green campaigners.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavillion and the party’s former leader, said that protesting isn’t “criminal”.

“Letting climate-wrecking mega-wealthy fossil fuel companies wilfully destroy our planet and then rake in billions of profit as a result, now that *really is* criminal,” she added.