Keir Starmer is facing an angry backlash over the arrest of hundreds of people during a protest over Palestine Action on Saturday, after it emerged that more than half of those held were over 60. The prime minister was warned by veteran backbencher Diane Abbott that the government was in danger of making itself look “both draconian and foolish”.

The group was proscribed as a terror organisation in July, but hundreds of people, many of pension age, took to the streets this weekend to defend them.