LABOUR MPs are calling for a police investigation into Mark Field after the Tory was suspended as a foreign minister for seizing an environmental protester by the neck and dragging her out of a black-tie City banquet.

The footage shows Greenpeace protester Janet Barker about to walk past Mr Field’s table before the Tory MP stands up, pushes her into a pillar, grabs the back of her neck, and frogmarches her out of the hall.

No-one in the packed hall is seen trying to intervene during the incident last night. Protesters disrupted the beginning of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s annual Mansion House speech with plans to deliver an alternative address on the “failure of the current system.”

Greenpeace climate campaigner Areeba Hamid said the organisation was “shocked” over the incident.

“Mark Field is the MP for the City and represents many of those financiers and bankers,” she added.

“We hope they will show a greater willingness to listen and understand the necessity for urgent action than their representative.”

Labour’s shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler called for Mr Field to be sacked and investigated by police after the clip was widely shared on social media.

Shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti said he should be suspended from the Conservative Party pending a disciplinary process and any police investigation following complaints that have been made.

She continued: “The distressing camera footage clearly demonstrates that the minister was not acting in self-defence. And ‘acting instinctively’ is no defence if your instincts come from a sense of entitlement and violent disdain for a young woman engaged in peaceful protest at a political event.”

Shadow policing and crime minister Louise Haigh said: “I used to be a special constable. This appears to me to be assault and he should be investigated by the police.

“The protesters declared they were peaceful and the full-length video makes it clear she was not a threat.”

Protester Ms Barker told the BBC she would not go to the police but said the MP “should go to anger management classes.”

Mr Field tweeted, in May, a link to his remarks in a Westminster Hall debate which claim that “the UK remains committed to helping women all over the world to feel safe and protected in the work they do, so they can speak freely and be part of the change we all want.”

In the debate he said that political participation of women is important because “political empowerment gives women the opportunity to share their views, to challenge the status quo.”

On the incident, Mr Field told ITV News that he was “for a split second, genuinely worried she might have been armed” and that he “unreservedly apologises to the lady concerned for grabbing her.”

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Prime Minister Theresa May found the footage “very concerning.”

She added: “The police have said they are looking into reports over this matter and Mark Field has also referred himself to both the Cabinet Office and the Conservative Party.

“He will be suspended as a minister while investigations take place.”

Before the suspension, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis said it was “very hard to defend” the footage and pledged an investigation.

The incident was compared to MP Esther McVey’s Tory leadership campaign launch when a man stormed the stage but was not grabbed by any of the male Tory MPs present.