I’m not making up abuse – MP

MP Jess Phillips says she is “sick” of people claiming that women make up stories about being abused on the internet.

And to prove her point, she posted some of the most recent examples of vile abuse that she has received.

The Birmingham Yardley MP spoke out on Twitter as she took part in an event called “Reclaim the Internet” alongside other senior politicians in central London.

It was called after a string of MPs including Ms Phillips, London MP Stella Creasy and Liverpool MP Luciana Berger were bombarded with misogynistic and anti-semitic abuse.

Speakers highlighted the problem of online bullying, misogyny, racism and abuse.

They included Labour politician Yvette Cooper, a former senior Treasury Minister who stood in the party’s leadership election last year and warned that online trolls were silencing women on the internet.

Examples highlighted by Ms Phillips included one message on Twitter which said she “can’t even get raped”.

Bizarrely, another Twitter user then tried to claim that this wasn’t abusive.

She also highlighted a comment from a Twitter user who claimed that “Zionists” controlled global financial institutions, a variation on the traditional anti-Semitic claim that Jews secretly controlled the world through the use of money.

Ms Phillips said: “So sick of people who should know better, using terrible tropes of abuse apology saying ‘we are making up this abuse’.”

Ms Cooper told the conference the internet “should be a voice for the voiceless” – but risked being “poisoned” by those who use it to prey on victims.

“We can’t have some voices being drowned out by abuse and hatred,” she said.