Earlier this month the Prime Minister gave a speech outside of No 10 Downing Street, voicing his concerns, in regard to the increase in violence and extremism on our streets, since the attacks of October 7 in Israel.

The general tone and sentiment of his message is one I can get behind, the fact that we have allowed protest to drift into intimidation, threats of violence and public disorder is disgraceful and if it is allowed to continue will pose risk to the very fabric of our nationhood.

As the Prime Minister said, we face ‘forces here at home’ that are trying to tear us apart from the inside.

Sadly, a significant minority of the pro-Palestine lobby want to cause division within our communities and localities, taking advantage of the universal human compassion for those who suffer as a result of conflict and manipulating those feelings into sectarian hatred.

However, now that this has been rightfully acknowledged, we need to see some follow through.

As I stated in the chamber last week, I have Jewish friends who have become nervous to come to their own capital city, out of a genuinely held fear that they may become the victim of intimidation, or worse, from a rogue hate mob.

The fact that such blatant anti-Semitic extremism has become too prevalent within British public life in recent months sickens me and is not a familiar or welcome part of the civilised nation of which I am very proud to call home.

Much of the root of what is essentially protest being allowed to turn to tumultuous chaos, lies in unsatisfactory policing.

The Metropolitan Police failing to do their job properly and curb the fallout of said zealously is disturbing enough, but what is more shocking, is the two-tier policing that has reared its ugly head.

The man arrested for holding a placard that stated, ‘Hamas is Terrorist’, a mere statement of fact – comes to mind.

This is something that you would expect to read on the pages of the dystopian works of Philip Dick or George Orwell, not in the headlines of the British press. Although we have seen the Metropolitan Police press charges ‘post event’ in a handful of cases where it comes to these displays of hatred, I wish to see such malice curbed in the moment in order to prevent the harm from being done.

Furthermore, I would like to affirm that this is not just a London issue, this affects all of us – both in a material way, but also, a spiritual way. 

If the Met Police continues to deal with this insufficiently and fails to police these demonstrations and their more unfortunate side effects within their own means, they may end up taking resources and manpower from regional police forces, including Suffolk.

Furthermore, the intimidation and fear felt by British Jews, is not limited to those who reside in London – it applies to Jewish people nationwide – including those here in Ipswich.

I have a good relationship with the Suffolk constabulary and appreciate the efforts they make in Ipswich to keep our streets safe, however the increase in large groups of young men loitering about the town centre acting in an anti-social manner in recent years deeply concerns me.

I want the local police to be empowered to deal with this appropriately. How are regional police forces supposed to feel when the Met is incapable of quelling the extremism on the streets of London.

Nationwide, the role of the police should be to ensure that law abiding British people feel safe to visit their town and city centres for work and leisure - not in fear that they may become the victim of crime whether it be petty or serious.

In regard to London, I believe that much of this is the fault of Sadiq Khan. A man that over the course of his time as Mayor has failed consistently to uphold proper policing standards and as I suggested in my statement last week in the chamber, the government should consider stripping his responsibility for the Metropolitan police from his powers.

The very fact that the deeply anti-Semitic phrase ‘From the River to the Sea’ was projected, by the protest groups, on the Elizabeth tower in the House of Commons, an institution that has represented governance in this country since the time of Edward III, shows that we are at a very critical moment in our national story. Both he government and the police force must deal with this robustly for the benefit of us all.