Mansfield MP and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council Ben Bradley, of Newark, subject to highest proportion of toxic tweets of all MPs

An investigation into the amount of abuse MPs receive over Twitter has found a Nottinghamshire MP received the highest proportion of toxic tweets.

MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council Ben Bradley, who lives in Newark, received 645 toxic tweets during a six week period, found an investigation by the BBC's Shared Data Unit, that can be published today.

They make up 13.5% of the 4,827 total tweets directed at the Conservative MP.

Toxicity level of tweets was ranked by the percentage of tweets the MP received that were toxic, rather than the overall number of toxic tweets.

Perspective API, a machine-learning tool built to identify harmful conversations online, was used to carry out the research.

It defines a toxic comment as a rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment that is likely to make someone want to leave a conversation.

The six week period lasted from March 15 to April 23 this year, and 2.9 million tweets where an MP was mentioned were included.

Despite not being a prominent member of the frontbench, Mr Bradley received proportionally more toxic tweets than any other MP during the study period.

Almost all of the abuse appears to have been linked to a tweet he posted on April 5 suggesting the culture secretary’s plan to privatise Channel Four would save the taxpayer money ­— a claim that was contested.

The tweet has since been deleted, with an explanation from Mr Bradley.

The most commonly used adjectives in tweets mentioning the MP were stupid, ignorant and thick, with one tweet reading: “@BBradley_Mans YOU IDIOT! YOU LIAR! IT RECEIVES NOT A PENNY FROM US IN TAX!! ITS ‘FREE TO F***ING AIR’ THATS HOW IT WORKS!!”

Mr Bradley also ranked 5th for severe toxicity, with 103 tweets, a total of 2.1% of all the tweets he was sent.

Mr Bradley said that it was a sad indictment of our society that the constant abuse of MPs is something that was very much part of political life in 2022.

He said: “I’ve suffered online abuse for a number of years. It’s a daily occurrence that in some respects I’ve learned to live with. Where I draw the line is when it is aimed at my wife and children, this crosses a line which is never acceptable nor should be tolerated.

“Over the years, I’m proud of my support for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people and I think my record speaks for itself where I’ve championed issues in this area. So when people on Twitter attack me for being uncaring and not interested in young people’s futures they do not know me or what I stand for.”

Mr Bradley said he would never want to curtail free speech or silence people's views so he’s learnt to ignore the abuse and handle it “robustly”. He also praised the police and Parliament for stepping in to support when abuse had involved death threats, kidnap and serious threats.

Out of 600 MPs with active Twitter accounts, others from the area ranked highly for percentage of toxic tweets.

Caroline Johnson, Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, came in 11th, with 18 toxic tweets making up 7.4% of all tweets aimed at her.

Newark Conservative MP Robert Jenrick received 35 toxic tweets, 4.8% of the total number of tweets he received, ranking him 44th.

3.6% of the tweets Sherwood MP Mark Spencer received were toxic, totalling 35 of 967 total tweets leaving the Conservative MP 109th.

Rushcliffe MP Ruth Edwards, also Conservative, is 259th with 3 toxic tweets equalling 2.3% of 133 total tweets.

Overall the study found female MPs were overall more likely to receive Twitter abuse than male MPs, and were more likely to be subject to sexualised language while men were more likely to be called liars.