Mark Field, a Foreign Office Minister, made the intervention after Mr Hammond was interrupted. Greenpeace UK said 40 of its activists had targeted the event. There are calls on social media for Mr Field to sacked from the Government, and for the police to investigate.

Footage from the venue shows the Minister stand up and grapple with a female protestor wearing a red dress.

During the altercation she is pushed into a pillar, before being escorted out of the room by Mr Field who keeps his hands on her neck.

Greenpeace said its supporters, who wore red sashes emblazoned with the slogan “climate emergency”, had been planning to deliver their own speech.

Emergency alarms can be heard in the background during the incident.

Reacting to the footage Labour MP Lisa Nandy said: “This is horrifying.”

Left-wing commentator Owen Jones added: “This is Tory MP Mark Field, and this should now be a police matter.”

However other social media users came to the Minister’s defence.

Conservative writer George Trefgarne retweeted the footage with the caption, “good for Mark Field”.

The Chancellor’s Mansion House speech is an annual event attended by leading business figures, and addressed by the Chancellor and Governor of the Bank of England.

Reacting to the interruption the Chancellor said: “The irony of course is that this is the Government that has just led the world by committing to a zero-carbon economy by 2050.”

The incident was attended by City of London Police.

A spokesman for the force said: “We were called by security at Mansion House who let us know there were a group of protestors who had gained entry and were refusing to leave.

“Officers arrived to help with their ejection.

“Once in the presence of the police, the protestors were cooperative and left the premises.”

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