Rishi Sunak calls for an end to 'un-British' intimidation of MPs

Five Greenpeace activists were arrested in August last year while Mr Sunak was on holiday with his wife and children in California after police were alerted to protesters scaling his North Yorkshire home and covering it in black drapes to protest against new oil licences.

Last month three activists were charged with criminal damage, and will appear in court later this month.

Mr Sunak said that the incident “surprised” him but noted that it speaks to a greater point about the dangers facing all MPs.

“I’m very lucky, right, I’m looked after by an incredible team of people who do a great job keeping me safe, but it’s not just me, you’ve had many more MPs in recent weeks and months who have not felt safe, either in their homes or out and about doing their events,” he told this paper.

“That’s not right. Our values in this country are ones of tolerance and decency and respect.

“It’s not right when a minority of people are acting in a way that is intimidating, aggressive, and undermining those values.

“That’s why I’ve been clear we need to stamp that out. We announced extra funding for the police to protect our democracy and make sure that those values are protected.

“MPs, it’s not about me, all MPs have to go about their day to day lives and their business without fear of intimidation and that kind of threatening and aggressive behaviour.

“It’s not right, it’s not what our society is built on.

“It is totally fine to have legitimate disagreements about things, but it's much better, and I think more British, if we do that in a respectful or tolerant way.”

Earlier this month the Prime Minister gave a rare speech outside the steps of 10 Downing Street, where he said that there are “forces” in the UK “trying to tear us apart”.

The intervention, following an increase in pro-Palestinain rallies outside of Parliament and election of George Galloway in a divisive Rochdale by-election campaign, sought to draw attention to the increase in anti-semitism and rising number of attacks on MPs.

Since 2016 two MPs have been murdered by extremists in the UK, including Yorkshire’s Jo Cox during the Brexit Referendum campaign.

As early as this week the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s constituency office was vandalised with grafiti reading “die Tory scum”.

Yesterday, Robin Simcox, the government's counter-extremism commissioner, urged ministers to “be bolder” when tackling extremism, suggesting that Mr Sunak needs to implement "policies to meet the scale of the challenge".

He said that this will be done through a new definition of extremism, which is expected to be set out next week.

"We have not betrayed democracy if extremists are no longer able to operate television channels," he wrote in the Telegraph.

"And we will not have become an authoritarian state if London is no longer permitted to be turned into a no-go zone for Jews every weekend."

"All these things and more have become normalised in the UK," he added.