Stop WordPress Visual Editor converting backticks into code blocks

This has solved the problem, simply remove the plugin which automatically formats text as you type, from loading in the first place.

add_filter( 'tiny_mce_plugins', 'rwebster_editor_remove_wptextpattern', 1, 99 );
function rwebster_editor_remove_wptextpattern( $plugins ) {
    $wptextpattern = array_search( 'wptextpattern', $plugins );
    unset( $plugins[$wptextpattern] );
    return $plugins;
}