Police warn MPs and campaigners to 'watch their language' so they don't fuel Brexit tensions

With the country completely divided on Brexit, one of the most senior police officers has warned MPs and campaigners on both sides of the argument to watch their language.

Martin Hewitt, who this week became chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said that public figures should be wary of “consequences that weren’t intended” when speaking about the issue.

He told journalists at a briefing at the National Police Co-ordination Centre that there was an “incredibly febrile atmosphere” around Brexit.

Mr Hewitt said: “This is highly emotive as an issue as we all know and clearly everyone will have their opinions.

“But I think there is a responsibility on those individuals that have a platform and have a voice, to communicate in a way that is temperate and is not in any way going to inflame people’s views.”

The political situation over Brexit has already seen heated protests on both sides, and a number of MPs have requested beefed-up security in the past six months.

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Police have also seen an increase in abuse aimed at politicians, Commander Adrian Usher, who leads parliamentary policing, said.

Mr Hewitt went on: “We are in an incredibly febrile atmosphere as a result of the whole EU exit scenario.

“We know and we can see that people are expressing themselves, we’re seeing a degree of protest, a degree of demonstration, there is a lot of angry talk that you can pick up if you look across social media.

“In any scenario like that where there are a range of outcomes it’s incumbent on anybody in a position of responsibility, and who has a voice, to just think carefully about the way that they express their views and their opinions, so that what they’re not doing is inciting behaviour or causing anybody to behave in a way that we wouldn’t want them to behave.”

He added: “We are in a febrile atmosphere and if you are in a position where you know you are going to be listened to, you need to think very carefully about the language that you are using so that it doesn’t end up with consequences that weren’t intended.”

The number of crimes linked to Brexit, although small, has more than doubled in a fortnight, with 26 last week and 11 the week before.

About half were malicious communications, while the remainder included verbal abuse, harassment and protest activity.

One protester admitted climbing on to a station roof and causing widespread disruption to Eurostar services, while British Transport Police are looking for another who planted devices aimed at bringing trains to a halt in Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire.

Under existing national contingency plans, every police force is expected to make a certain number of officers available to be deployed wherever they are required.

More than 10,000 riot-trained officers can be deployed within 24 hours if needed, with 1,000 available in the first hour. This is more than were mobilised during the 2011 riots.