Rishi Sunak has announced the government will “back” police if they take stronger action at protests. The prime minister spoke about efforts to protect democracy and crack down on extremism on Friday 1 March in a surprise address from Downing Street. “Recently our streets have been hijacked by small groups who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions,” Mr Sunak said. “This month, the government will implement a new, robust framework for how it deals with this issue, to ensure we are dealing with the root causes of this problem.” The prime minister added that he will “demand universities stop extremist activities on campus.”