Naz Shah MP shockingly received 5,000 'toxic' tweets in six weeks

Labour's Naz Shah, of Bradford West, was the most targeted MP in the district, followed by Conservatives Philip Davies (Shipley) and Robbie Moore (Keighley).

Ms Shah was sent 4,989 'toxic' messages on the social media platform Twitter between March and April of 2022, according to a study from the BBC’s Shared Data Unit and its partners.

In recent years, two people have been jailed in court for sending malicious emails to Ms Shah.

She was not shocked to see what the data revealed and feels there is "no end" to the abuse she receives online.

Ms Shah said: "The unfortunate reality is, there is simply no end to the toxic tweets on Twitter. 

“Despite the fact that a man has been sentenced to prison after threatening to attack me, I still wake up to a daily barrage of racist, Islamophobic, sexist and hate-filled tweets.

"Sadly, it doesn't shock me that according to this research I have received the most toxic tweets in the Bradford district."

The study showed that Yorkshire and Humber had the highest percentage for the proportion of tweets received by MPs self-defining as being from an ethnic minority background and rated as 'toxic'.

A toxic tweet is defined as a rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment that is likely to make someone want to leave a conversation.

Tory duo Mr Davies and Mr Moore were sent 1,271 and 1,149 of these tweets.

Conservative MPs Philip Davies and Robbie Moore (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Davies feels the online abuse is putting future politicians off the job.

He said: "I am afraid that dealing with abuse is now part of the job of an MP.

"Social media is one of the worst things that has happened to politics, and is now one of the main reasons accomplished and talented people no longer want to go into politics.

"I very much hope that this will change, but I cannot see it changing anytime soon.

"Unfortunately, we all just have to take it on the chin.  You certainly have to have a thick skin in politics"

Mr Moore added: "No one deserves to receive hateful abuse online, and it is particularly disturbing to see that toxic tweets are disproportionately targeted towards female and ethnic minority MPs. This is completely unacceptable.

"Unfortunately, we are all the subject of such abuse, including myself. Twitter can be a vile place and it is a shame that individuals, usually through anonymous accounts use this platform to hurl abuse at others.”

The other district MPs, who both represent Labour, Imran Hussain (Bradford East) and Judith Cummins (Bradford South), received 485 and 97.

Meanwhile, Batley & Spen MP Kim Leadbeater (Labour), sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, was targeted by 1,669 'toxic' messages.

The first incident involving Ms Shah occurred back in 2019 when a man who sent an offensive email to her was jailed for 12 weeks.

Stewart Hanson, 57, from Tranmere, accused the MP of anti-Semitism and made racist taunts and threats of violence to Ms Shah and her family in a message to her work account.

Last year, a Lidget Green woman admitted to three charges of sending malicious emails and one of perverting the course of justice.

Ms Shah rang the police after becoming distressed and worried by five emails sent to her by 30-year-old Sundas Alam.

At the time, the MP said: “Having lost two colleagues in the space of five years, death threats are close to home.

“The mental and emotional harm extends to those around us including our families and our staff teams.

“It is important that we don’t allow a culture to build were threats, abuse and attacks on Members of Parliament and our staff becomes normalised.

“I will continue to represent my constituents of Bradford West to the best of my ability.

"Serving the public is an honour and a duty, and I, like every single other MP in the UK, will not allow anyone to distract me from this.”

More than 3,000 offensive tweets are sent to UK MPs every day.

More than 130,000 of those tweets - which works out at around one in every 20 tweets - were deemed to be ‘toxic’ and female MPs were marginally more likely to receive abuse than their male counterparts.

Four out of five of the most prolific toxic tweeters against male and female MPs continued to have an active account in August.

In a previous Parliamentary debate on online abuse, Ms Shah said the online world has allowed some people to “mask their characters and express hate in ways that would be utterly unacceptable in the real world.”

“What will happen to the hundreds of anonymous accounts whose Islamophobic, racist, misogynistic and hate-filled threats are left unchallenged on social media - the tweets of me wearing a hijab, falsely labelling me as an Islamist paedophile admirer, those describing me as a cancer that will lead to my destruction, and the hundreds of others that are still online today? In the real world, we have hate crime laws and defamation laws, but for the anonymous trolls the online space has become a free-for-all.”