Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe has been trapped in a taxi and surrounded by protesters angry at her hard-line stand on the issue of allowing asylum-seekers into the UK.
The MP was spotted using a back exit to leave an event at Edinburgh Book Festival, where she had been giving a reading from her novel.
As police and security guards guided from the marquee to her waiting taxi, protesters who had been attempting to disrupt the reading surrounded the group.
Although Widdecombe was able to get into the taxi, it had barely pulled away when it became stuck in traffic and was again surrounded.
As police struggled to clear a path through the traffic, protesters struck the taxi with placards and thumped the windows and door panels.
Some protesters were detained by police but there is currently no news on arrests.
During her reading, Widdecombe was heckled by dozens of protesters who stood outside the tent, striking its walls and chanting: “Jail the racists not the refugees” and “Refugees are welcome, Widdecombe is not.”
The protest was organised by Refugees Welcome Here. Spokesperson Bill Scott said it seemed out of place that Widdecombe was in the same book festival arena as Amnesty International, which was holding a workshop on imprisoned writers. He said the Tories would throw them in jail if they came over here.
Widdecombe laughed off the incident, comparing it with a book-signing which was attacked by custard pie throwers where, she said, the custard-covered books had sold best.
And she told her audience she was proud to live in a country where people had freedom of speech and were allowed to hold demonstrations against her, instead of having to flee as refugees.
But Scott countered that freedom of speech on its own wasn't enough and there was a need to defend other rights too.
He denied any links with the custard pie throwers, but added: "We would like to get their recipe."