A radio presenter has spoken of how she feared for the safety of Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey after she was confronted by a ‘verbally aggressive’ man as a market town celebrated an historic anniversary.

Gen X Radio presenter Katy Bailey stood between the Suffolk Coastal MP and the man to try and protect her after he shouted at her in Saxmundham, as the town celebrated the 750th anniversary of being granted its Royal Charter.

The dangers faced by MPs have been increasingly in the spotlight following the murder of Southend West MP David Amess as he attended a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in October.

Katy said: “He was just very verbally aggressive. I just reacted and stood in front of her. You hear about these incidents involving MPs and of people being ‘got at’. I said ‘this is not the time or place’ and ‘you know there are kids about'.

“Another guy squared up to him and I tried to calm them both down. It was just very sad because it was just such a lovely day. I know that people are hurting right now, but he did not express his views in the right way.”

The politician had not been attending the event in an official capacity, but as a member of the public and was chatting to the presenter and another man in front of the town’s Market Hall when she was approached by the man.

Following the incident, Ms Coffey left the immediate area, but returned later for the opening of the new Fromus Community Centre.

Bryony Peall, an organiser of Royal Charter anniversary, attended the event and was aware of the incident, but said it was ‘dealt with quickly and swiftly by the team on the ground’.

She added: “It was just an angry person on a fun family day, shouting his opinion. We have got a lot of safety in place to deal with that sort of situation and the police were on standby to deal with things.”

Ms Coffey was unavailable for comment.