A woman has been arrested after the M25 had to be closed due to a protest by Just Stop Oil.

The motorway was shut heading into Kent from Essex when police blocked off the clockwise carriageway at Junction 31.

At the height of the queues during this evening's rush-hour there was more than 12 miles of congestion on the approach to the QEII Bridge.

Traffic was being diverted from J30 to J31, to return to the M25/A282 before the bridge. It was reopened at about 5.30pm.

The group declared the M25 a "site of civil resistance against our criminal government".

In a statement, the group said: "We fully acknowledge the cost and disruption this will cause to the public and ask that they take their demands for compensation to the government which has caused this unprecedented threat to our lives and liberties.

"As citizens, as humans, as sons and daughters and mothers and fathers we have every right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love. We will not stand by, we will do what is necessary. We will resist.

"We are therefore declaring the M25 a site of civil resistance against our criminal government.

"We ask that no one travels on this motorway from Wednesday to Friday this week as we will be blocking the highway.

"We fully acknowledge the cost and disruption this will cause to the public and ask that they take their demands for compensation to the government which has caused this unprecedented threat to our lives and liberties.

"We have a clear demand: that the UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

"This is the necessary first step to ensuring a liveable future.

"We are working in coalition with other groups to escalate civil resistance to force a government response. We are all in this together and we have all been betrayed.

"We need everyone now, to step up and take action."

This afternoon, a spokesman for Essex Police said: "We responded to reports of someone on a gantry above the clockwise section between Junctions 30 and 31 shortly after 11am today.

"Our officers attended and worked to resolve the situation quickly and safely and this required specialist resources.

"The road was closed for a time but we worked to put a diversion in place to release traffic.

"A woman has now been arrested and the road is being re-opened shortly."

Chief Inspector Anna Granger added: “I want to thank the public for their patience and understanding while we dealt with this incident.

"It just shows how nasty, selfish and callous these people can be."

“We are well prepared for incidents of disruption on our roads and to keep Essex moving, and we enacted these quickly.

“This was a challenging incident to resolve due to its nature but we resolved it as quickly and safely as possible.”

Dartford MP Gareth Johnson said: "I utterly condemn this selfish protest which will cause misery to all affected.

"I hope the police and the Courts will deal with them robustly.

"This kind of highly disruptive protest is totally counter productive.

"Dartford has suffered enough over the last 24 hours yet they choose this moment to carry out their actions.

"It just shows how nasty, selfish and callous these people can be."