SOCIAL media abuse is the worst it has ever been, an MP has said.

Like all eight of Suffolk's MPs, Jack Abbott, who represents Ipswich, shares much of his constituency and parliamentary work on his social media.

His posts vary from personal campaigns to Government announcements or photos of walkabouts along the Ipswich waterfront.

While most of the comments underneath them are either positive or represent respectful criticisms, personal attacks are also fairly common.

Some of the recent insults include calling Mr Abbott a 'privately educated champagne socialist p****', 'stupid' or 'useless'.

He said all MPs had to develop a thick skin to deal with comments such as these, but admitted they could have an exhausting effect.

"I'm happy to take criticism or debate, but it quite regularly strays into a place where it becomes quite personal," he said.

"Because you're a public figure, and you are in politics, people feel they can talk to you almost however they want — you're seen as fair game as an MP.

"Even when you post something very positive that has happened to your community, you still get abuse."

Meanwhile, personal interactions out in the public, he said, were overwhelmingly positive, with only rare occurrences of verbal abuse.

Yet, on social media, loaded words like 'treason' were not uncommon.

He said: "This is my home, I care very deeply about what happens next, and this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.

"I think it's the worst it has ever been, and I think it's very dangerous where we could potentially head."

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter

His experience is similar to that of Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the MP for Suffolk Coastal, who said she was nervous ahead of getting elected about what social media abuse could look like.

Now, though it has become worse in the past year, she said she had become more desensitised to it.

"I don't take it personally because I know that the people I'm working hard for, and am working hard with, know the work I'm putting in," Ms Riddell-Carpenter said.

"I have to have a level of confidence in what I'm doing and the change I'm trying to bring about for this constituency — I know I'm working really hard.

"On my worst days, when I'm the most tired, and it feels like I'm swimming through treacle in trying to achieve something, those are the days you see the abuse and you can see why people are put off this job."

Her posts have also seen persistent abusive comments such as 'glory hunting' and 'leaching off' working people.

Despite this, she says, worse abuse comes through the more than 1,000 emails her team receives on a weekly basis.

"It's incredibly hard when they are trying to do an incredibly stressful job under lots of pressure," she said.

Dr Peter Prinsley, representing Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, believes it is important for MPs to keep a barrier between themselves and social media.

He recently had a post on X, based on a question in the Commons about being banned from entering Israel as a Jewish person himself, which attracted a significant number of comments, some of which were particularly nasty.

Dr Prinsley said: "The truth of the matter is, I don't really look at comments — I think it's a good idea to have a sort of arms-length approach to social media.

"Having a filter between what somebody is typing away at their keyboard in a state of high anxiety is quite a good idea."