MPs are bombarded with more than 3,000 offensive tweets every day, according to a recent investigation.
"It's just vile" - are the words of one Meon Valley MP.
According to the research, covering six weeks between March and April this year, one in every 20 tweets sent to MPs was deemed to be ‘toxic’.
Figures provided to the Chronicle by the BBC’s Shared Data Unit revealed that 50 tweets were sent to MPs in the Romsey and Winchester area.
Female MPs were marginally more likely to receive abuse including terms such as “thick” and “ignorant”.
And, to be subjected to sexualised language.
Meanwhile, their male counterparts were more likely to be called “liars”.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, the member for Romsey and Southampton North, received the most abuse during the investigation's remit with 42 toxic tweets.
Caroline Nokes MP (Image: PA)
In response, Ms Nokes said: “I turn off notifications and simply don't look.
“The pity of that is that those who send abuse mean that I can never have any sort of meaningful exchange with anyone on social media.
“The block and mute buttons are frequently deployed.”
Winchester and Chandler's Ford MP Steve Brine was targeted with eight tweets during the same period.
According to the data, Tory MPs were almost twice as likely to be the subject of a tweet classed as “severely toxic”.
One user sent 128 toxic-rated tweets to male MPs and 85 to female MPs during the time period.
The Conservative MP for Meon Valley Flick Drummond quit Twitter in 2021 citing "out of hand" abuse.
She said: "I came off it, but it was purely because it's just another thing to look at. You just say, oh god, and they're just horrible people, and they feel that they can hide behind their Twitter handle. You don't know who they are. It's just vile, and I have to say my mental health is much improved since I've come off it."
Prime Minister and former Winchester College head boy, Rishi Sunak, received the second most severely toxic tweets of any MP.
He only trailed Boris Johnson in the ratings - who was in the midst of the lockdown parties probe at the time.
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