A NEWSPAPER editor called on the Home Secretary today to ensure that an “unprecedented assault on the freedom of the press” by police preventing newspaper lorries from passing a protest is not repeated.

Just Stop Oil activists have dug a tunnel under St Clements Way in Grays, Essex, to halt deliveries to a nearby oil terminal.

The police reacted by closing the road to “non-priority” vehicles, including a lorry distributing the Portsmouth News and the Daily Mail.

Portsmouth News editor Mark Waldron wrote to Priti Patel asking her to ensure such a decision to prevent newspaper deliveries is not taken again.

He wrote: “This was an unprecedented assault on the freedom of the press which should never have happened in a healthy democracy.

“Oil tankers and grocery lorries were allowed through but not newspaper vans.

“I call on you today to look into why this unacceptable and misguided decision was made.”

Ms Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have criticised the Just Stop Oil protesters, with the Home Secretary accusing “thugs and so-called eco-warriors” of “waging a war against the British people.”

In response, the campaign group said in an open letter to the pair: “Just Stop Oil will not be stopped by your threats, we will continue our campaign of peaceful civil resistance until the government agrees to end new oil and gas.

“To continue a policy to expand fossil fuel extraction, a policy that is opposed by the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and every climate scientist, is to knowingly plan for the deaths of countless millions, billions to lose their homes, [and for] the end of ordered society and, with it, democracy.”