Investigation reveals levels of 'toxic' language aimed at MPs on Twitter

‘Stupid’ and ‘pathetic’ are two of the most common adjectives used to describe MPs in tweets, a BBC investigation has found.

The investigation, which looks into the scale of abuse MPs receive on Twitter, analysed three million tweets that mentioned MPs over a six-week period.

Using ‘machine learning’ each tweet was rated on its level of toxicity with more than 130,000 tweets considered likely to be toxic and 20,000 severely toxic.

In this study, toxicity covers a rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment.

Newbury MP Laura Farris received eight ‘toxic’ tweets out of a total of 747 tweets that mentioned her name during this period.

This means just 1.1 per cent of the tweets that mentioned the Conservative MP were classified as toxic.

That puts her in 452nd place out of 599 MPs.

North West Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse was in the top five MPs in the South East to receive disrespectful or rude tweets.

Mr Malthouse obtained 254 tweets containing rude or disrespectful language out of 4,999 mentions – 5.1 per cent.

Reading West MP Alok Sharma had 69 ‘toxic tweets’ out of a total 3,033 mentions – a total of 2.3 per cent.

Devizes MP Danny Kruger had 41 ‘toxic tweets’ out of a total 1,339 mentions – a total of 3.1 per cent.

In surrounding areas, Maidenhead MP and former Prime Minister Theresa May accumulated 108 'toxic' comments out of 7,051 tweets and Wokingham MP John Redwood collected 1,208 out of 34,773 tweets.

Mrs May's mentions were 1.5 per cent 'toxic' with Mr Redwood's at 3.5 per cent.

Nationally, the top ten MPs who received tweets rated as 'toxic' were Ben Bradley (Con, Mansfield) with 13.5 per cent, followed by James Murray (Lab, Ealing North), Siobhain McDonagh (Lab, Mitcham and Morden), Natalie Elphicke (Con, Dover), Charlotte Nichols (Lab, Warrington North), Amanda Milling (Con, Cannock Chase), Shailesh Vara (Con, North West Cambridgeshire),Barry Sheerman (Lab, Huddersfield), James Dudderage (Con, Rochford and Southend East) and Matt Hancock (Con, West Suffolk).

All 20 of the MPs to receive the most abuse proportionally were not members of the cabinet or shadow cabinet.

The breakdown shows that female MPs were more likely to be called ‘thick’ and ‘ignorant’ and subjected to sexualised language.

Their male counterparts were more likely to be called ‘liars’.

Conservative MPs were nearly twice as likely as a Labour MPs to receive a tweet classed as ‘severely toxic’.

The study also found that one user sent 128 toxic-rated tweets to male MPs and 85 to female MPs during the time period.

The BBC has interviewed Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley who said politicians accepted robust criticism was part of their job, but she said a line was crossed when the language used was sexist, racist, or over-sexualised.

You can read their full interview here.