Is Britain really in the grip of extremism or mob rule?

Rishi Sunak spoke of a ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption’ – but critics warn voices are being silenced and that the UK’s ‘pluralist tolerance’ is at risk

It’s not what anyone would want for a school. As well as educating more than 1,300 children, the teachers at Barclay primary school in Leyton, east London, have been meeting weekly with police to discuss “new evidence of online abuse and criminality”.

A bitter row over whether children may wear pro-Palestinian pins, flags and badges on their uniforms prompted a war of words involving parents, with one protester standing outside the school gates with a placard saying: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The school even had to close early for the Christmas break amid fears over the wellbeing of staff.