Tensions are running high in the House of Commons. As the Brexit debates continue, MPs are being warned to look out for their safety.

All MPs, including St Albans representative Anne Main and Harpenden’s Bim Afolami have received a warning from deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

The advice includes travelling by taxi or with colleagues. Many have, apparently, already installed panic buttons at home.

Mr Hoyle, a long-standing Labour MP, said: “I have never felt this level of tension during my time in the house and I am aware that other colleagues feel the same.”

He added: “Many colleagues have already been subject to widely publicised abuse and intimidation.”

The most serious attack of recent years came in June 2016, when MP Jo Cox was murdered in her West Yorkshire constituency.

But online abuse is commonplace, and seems to have become a ‘normal’ part of our political debates.

So here’s a quiet suggestion, perhaps an unpopular one.

As so many people are exasperated by the Brexit discussions, frustrated that a clear way ahead has yet to be found, let’s just pause and take a deep breath.

More than that, with some silence and space for reflection, maybe we could each take time to pray for our politicians, and for the civil servants and others working behind the scenes to reach a solution.

Let’s take a moment of calm, a brief respite, to acknowledge that politicians are flesh-and-blood people…people trying to do a job.

Whether we agree with their decisions and opinions or not, they deserve our respect, and should be safe as they carry out their vital public role.