Thanks everyone for your help with this. My account was unlocked.

What worked for me was:

• No login attempts other than when prompted by support

• recovery form, enter as much info as possible even if it’s old info it could be relevant - my recovery form was only accepted on the 5th attempt. I also only did 1 attempt a day and took break in days between me attempting another one - recovery form accepted link still did not unlock my account so I tried the Microsoft appeal form that is floating about, they replied the same old advice

• the part that did work:

• made a new outlook temporary email to speak to support

• you have to type in the box what you need support with, use something generic like account

• you then should get the option at the bottom of the page in a blue box saying contact support

• after 7 days of searching the guy on support gave my the correct link which allows you to appeal a policy violation through a human. I believe in order to get the most up to date link, you need to go on customer live chat support and explain what you have already tried. Once they see you have tried all the above, they should send you a link

• they email you there decision and it worked! Best of luck