Cooler heads must prevail in order to halt the growing threat to our politicians’ safety

Editorial: If our MPs do not lower the temperature at such a sensitive time, they will allow good people to be driven out of politics

The abuse to which MPs are subjected on social media, particularly the misogynistic attacks on women, is deterring some from entering politics (Anadolu via Getty)

Rishi Sunak is right to argue that a “dangerous signal” that “intimidation works” was sent in parliament last week when Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, judged that Labour MPs could face physical threats unless the party’s amendment on a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel was put to a vote. The crossing of this line – a worrying development – was partially obscured by the Commons chaos and the controversy that followed, which left the speaker fighting to keep his job.

The justified concern expressed by Mr Sunak and his ministers has also been eclipsed by the Conservatives’ latest unforced error – the inflammatory assertion by Lee Anderson, the party’s former deputy chair, that Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, is under the control of “Islamists”.

The prime minister’s warning that our democracy “cannot bend to the threat of violence and intimidation or fall into polarised camps who hate each other” would carry more weight were his party as serious about eliminating Islamophobia as it is about antisemitism. Mr Sunak’s statement on Sunday referred to an “explosion in prejudice and antisemitism” since the 7 October attack on Israel, but, remarkably, did not mention the rise in attacks aimed at Muslims. As The Independent reports today, the number of Islamophobic incidents logged has reached a record high.