Bolton: MPs speak out on 'toxic tweets' report

This comes after a study found that 130,000 ‘toxic’ tweets were aimed at British MPs in a period of just two months earlier this year.

Abuse varied somewhat across the regions, but most MPs had experienced some degree of toxicity. 

Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, who received seven toxic tweets in that period, said: “This report is in itself incredibly concerning but sadly not surprising as MPs are often harassed and women and ethnic minority MPs more so.

“With the murders of David Amess and Jo Cox it is imperative that we find what unites us rather than what divides us in politics.

“We need a politics based on civility and compromise, in which people are allowed to freely express their views.”

Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi (Image: Office of Yasmin Qureshi MP)

Of the seven toxic tweets directed at Ms Qureshi, one was deemed to be ‘severely’ toxic.

The research was carried out by the BBC Shared Data Unit who judged tweets to be toxic if they contained identity attacks, insults, profanity and threats.

All together, of 2.9 million tweets send to MPs between March and April this year we analysed, there were 135,822 deemed to be toxic.

Bolton West and Atherton MP Chris Green had been on the receiving end of five toxic tweets in the two month sample period, none of which were judges as ‘severely toxic.’

He pointed out that MP’s should expect to be debated on key issues by the public but argued people should be able to do so in a civil way.

Bolton West and Atherton MP Chris Green (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Green said: “It would be so much better if people spoke to each other online as they do face-to-face.

“My constituents are invariably incredibly polite when I meet then and it’s a shame the same can’t be said on twitter.”

He added: “But I accept that as a member of parliament some people aren’t always going to agree with me and its inevitable I’m going to be on the receiving end of some unpleasantness.”

Mr Green’s Conservative colleague Bolton North East MP Mark Logan received 30 toxic tweets, four of them ‘severely toxic.’

Responding to the study, Ellen Judson, head of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media digital research hub at Demos said that the system has to allow people to be more in touch with those who represent them.

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She said: “It was not surprising to see that kind of abuse, those are very common insults, particularly stupidity and ignorance, which we see in a lot of comments targeted at women in public life.

“It’s disappointing from a democratic standpoint but it is in line with what we see online and what we hear from MP’s own experience.”

She added: “We need to think about ways people can be more involved in policy, more in touch with their representatives that doesn’t conflate abuse with some sort of democratic accountability.”