On November 10, two police officers informed Pearson that she was under investigation and invited her for a voluntary interview following an allegedly offensive tweet a year ago.

She is being investigated under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to material alleged to be “likely or intended to incite racial hatred”.

Pearson described the experience as “Kafka,” writing last week: “I was definitely shocked. Amazed. And this. Upset. How could I not be? It’s never nice to have the police at your door if you’re a law-abiding person, because the police at your door can only mean one of two things: tragedy or trouble.

“But to have them here at the saddest, most solemn meeting on the calendar with this kind of malevolent nonsense, it was surreal.”

Essex Police were attacked for his handling of the investigationfrom which it later emerged, and officers from the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police. The Essex force set up a “gold squad”, usually reserved to deal with major crime, to investigate.

On Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer called on forces to “focus on what matters most to their communities” amid the growing row, adding: “This is a matter for the police themselves, police force by police force, so so that they can make their decisions and they obviously want to be held accountable for those decisions.”

Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said The Telegraph last week that journalists should not “be visited by the police to express their views”.