Chris Heaton-Harris is rightly taking a lot of heat over his “McCarthyite” letter to universities – but it seems he’s not the only Tory MP who supports a witch hunt against pro-EU academics.

The controversy over his letters – demanding the names of professors teaching about Brexit and details of their syllabus – has flushed out more Tories who actively support his campaign or were willing to defend it.

They include Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons who was the Brexiteer choice for Tory leader, who told World at One:

“That is a courteous letter asking for information, there’s nothing sinister about it and I would take it in that light. “He’s not compelling anybody to do anything. He’s asking a question as a Member of Parliament and I personally don’t see anything sinister about asking that question. “Universities are bastions of free speech, so to be horrified by somebody asking a simple question does seem to me a bit odd that universities should react in such a negative way to such a courteous request.”

Philip Davies offered the most unashamed defence of his letters, accusing universities of indoctrination:

Three more Tory backbenchers spoke out to support Heaton-Harris on Twitter:

.@chhcalling this is what a lecturer was handing out to my daughter who spends £9k pa for him to be teaching engineering, not politics pic.twitter.com/yFLvsU8Acm — Paul Scully (@scullyp) October 24, 2017

Well done @chhcalling investigating bias.@cardiffuni in Parliament Thursday moaning about Brexit. Wales voted leave! https://t.co/7FPPKvB8By — David Davies MP (@DavidTCDavies) October 24, 2017

Absolutely right to question what our universities are teaching. Time to look at A level politics courses. Classes should be bias free. https://t.co/41kuKApsTS — Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 24, 2017

They line-up alongside hard right mouthpiece Katie Hopkins in publicly supporting Heaton-Harris:

Excellent work by @chhcalling – liberal brainwashing starts in schools. By university it is institutionalised. pic.twitter.com/MB9ci6viGR — Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) October 24, 2017

After being asked four times on the Today programme whether the letter should have been sent, Universities Minister Jo Johnson finally said it should not have been.

Apart from that, Scrapbook couldn’t find a single Tory MP who has publicly criticised the letter or spoken out more generally in support of free speech at universities since the letter was published.

Tory MPs seem split between those who want a witch hunt and those who are too afraid to get in trouble with a whip to defend free speech.

Their response is almost more worrying than the letter itself…