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Online abuse of MPs rocketed between 2015 and 2017, according to fresh analysis of more than one million tweets.

Twitter insults aimed at politicians rose from about 10,000 during the 2015 general election to just under 25,000 during the snap 2017 general election.

Project leader Professor Kalina Bontcheva, from the University of Sheffield department of computer science, said the UK’s democracy could be put under threat “if people are dissuaded from standing for election”.

It comes after the Evening Standard revealed on Thursday that women MPs are being targeted with vile abuse on social media by hardline Brexit backers.

Tories Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt received the highest proportion of abuse in their Twitter replies, but Prof Bontcheva said abuse in general seemed unaffected by party or gender.

She said: "The increase in abuse towards public figures is a shocking development and one that the UK Government is right to take seriously.

"If people are dissuaded from standing for election, then our representation on a democratic level is under threat."

The study shows for the first time that, although the number of total tweets rose in the period the study was carried out, both the volume and proportion of Twitter abuse increased between 2015 and 2017.

Prominent politicians tended to receive a lot of tweets and also a lot of abuse, but lesser-known MPs received proportionally higher levels of abuse.

Mr Johnson's Twitter timeline was filled with 6.6 per cent abusive tweets in 2015, rising to 9.3 per cent in 2017 and Mr Hunt had 4.6 per cent abusive tweets in 2015, rising to 8.55 per cent in 2017.

Labour shadow home secretary Diane Abbott got 2.5 per cent abuse in 2015, which rose to 3.4 per cent in 2017, whereas Ed Miliband received 5.6 per cent abusive tweets when he was party leader in 2015, which fell to 3.3 per cent on his return to the backbenches.

In 2015, users who tweeted abusive replies were more concerned with the economy, but in 2017 these were concerned with national security in the wake of terror attacks on UK soil.

Prof Bontcheva added: "Whilst there was a clear increase in abuse on Twitter sent to politicians in the 2017 general election compared to 2015, it was interesting to see the differences in the topics they responded to.

"This clearly shows the different issues that rose to prominence in the two separate elections."

Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith, responding to the research, said: "It is vital that we prevent the rising intimidation of people in public office and those who want to stand for election.

"That is why this government is consulting on new measures that will protect candidates and campaigners standing for public service.

"We can't let intimidation of people in public life continue unchecked."

Additional reporting by Press Association