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Lichfield and Burntwood MP Michael Fabricant has defended calling a teenager “a complete t**t” on Twitter - claiming he suspected she was a Russian troll.

The politician launched the astonishing attack on Darcy May, 19, after she had questioned his commitment to part of the constituency.

The LichfieldLive blog reports that Darcy had called the Conservative MP “weak and wobbly” after suggesting he did not give enough attention to Burntwood.

But Mr Fabricant hit back on Twitter, stating: "Says a complete t**t who seems unaware that there is no vote this year in Burntwood!!

A shocked Darcy described the MP’s comments as “disgusting” on Facebook and added: “I never used foul language to him – I even asked if he would like to discuss this further in private message or in person, which he didn’t respond to.

“I never mentioned a vote in Burntwood and I never slammed the Tories – I literally just complained about Burntwood, yet I’m getting loads of messages from his ‘supporters’ attacking me personally.”

Darcy added: “It is important that we show authorities that hateful language and talking down to us will not be tolerated.

“We are all human and deserve to be spoken to with respect.”

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Mr Fabricant told LichfieldLive that Twitter was “not for the easily offended” and said he had initially suspected Darcy was a troll from Momentum or Russia.

“Darcy is one of over a million people who interact with me each month on Twitter one way or another,” he said.

“Often, especially at election time, Momentum trolls from Glasgow and elsewhere purport to comment on events in Lichfield and Burntwood while knowing nothing about the area and having no connection with the area either.

“Darcy made no attempt to explain on her Twitter profile or in her message what age she is, or that she actually lives anywhere near Burntwood.

“Instead she chose to reply to a post of mine which said that Labour had had disappointing election results with her rude response: ‘Not as disappointing as Burntwood since you neglected it. WEAK AND WOBBLY’. No indication of anything else.

"For all I know she is a Russian troll in St Petersburg – there are plenty of those."