JACOB REES-MOGG was caught up in a scuffle as he tried to defuse a mob of far-left protesters that crashed his speech at the University of Bristol.
The Somerset Tory MP who is favourite to replace Theresa May was reportedly pushed and shoved as punches were thrown.
Video posted on social media showed Rees-Mogg confronting the far-left mob including Momentum Corbynistas.
The event descended into violence with Mr Rees-Mogg caught in the middle of the scuffle.
Mogg said that he was “absolutely fine” and had had “worse confrontations with The Guardian. ”
One eyewitness said that the protesters hurled abuse at Jacob, calling him a “nazi,” a “fascist and a racist” whilst preventing him from talking.
“Someone got punched and it got very pushy,” an eyewitness said.
“Eventually most of the masked men left but one of the unmasked men remained calling him a ‘racist, sexist, misogynist.
“Everyone was shocked, I was pretty scared especially the longer it went on and the more pushy it got.”
Crowds gathered round before the protest was calmed by security around ten minutes later.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “They shouted at me but they weren’t going to hit me. They didn’t want to talk about politics, they just wanted to stop the event.
“They shouted no platform for Tory scum and other insults, but I’m of the sticks and stones school of thought.
“I wanted to stop anyone being hit because the whole thing would have degenerated. I didn’t think anyone was going to hit me so I felt quite safe intervening. I spoke afterwards, I was there for ages. There were lots of questions from the audience afterwards.”
A post advertising the event on the group’s Facebook page said: “This will be a chance to talk to an experienced parliamentarian about the issues of the day, what it’s like to be an MP and how you can get there, or perhaps how exactly one pronounces ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’.”
The society declined to comment on the incident.