Sunak’s address comes after chaotic scenes in the British parliament in recent weeks, as well as the testy Rochdale by-election.
A House of Commons vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza last month descended into chaos after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ignored long-standing precedent, citing concern for MPs’ safety. Lawmakers have faced vocal protests about the war outside constituency offices, parliament and, in some cases, their homes. Some have faced death threats.
Sunak — who is battling to stay in office in the upcoming election amid dire polling for his governing Tories — warned that “long-standing parliamentary conventions have been up-ended because of safety concerns,” and warned there were now “forces here at home trying to tear us apart.”
“Islamist extremists and far-right groups are spreading a poison,” he said. “That poison is extremism. It aims to drain us of our confidence in ourselves as a people and in our shared future.”
‘Let us prove these extremists wrong’
Senior members of Sunak’s government have also hit out at Pro-Palestinian protesters in recent days, although Sunak himself has been accused of exaggerating the problem by some human rights groups after he warned of “mob rule” in the U.K.
The left-wing Momentum campaign group, which has been involved in some of the protests, charged Friday night that Sunak was “smearing peaceful protesters whose demand for an immediate cease-fire represents the mainstream of public opinion.” But the right-leaning Policy Exchange think tank called it a “striking intervention” which was “justified by events.”