A CONSERVATIVE candidate has spoken out about the "horrific" abuse she has received over the years.

MP for Romsey and Southampton North, Caroline Nokes opened up about the online abuse she experienced when she was the Minister of State for Immigration from January 2018 to July 2019.

This comes after a parliamentary report warned murder, rape and other violence against MPs have become “commonplace”, forcing many to increase security measures when they deal with the public.

The report also revealed the volume of threats against MPs has “dramatically increased” during the Brexit crisis.

Speaking on the Youtube show, The Stream, on Thursday, 31 October, Ms Nokes said: "I was the immigration minister for 18 months and the level of abuse I was getting online was horrific.

"I gave my phone to my colleague in the House of Commons and she fiddled with it for three minutes and went 'there you go, the notifications are gone and these people are not going to trouble you anymore'.

"That is one strategy to deal with it, simply turn off the notifications and don't look."

She added: "It is easier to ignore it when it is sad people who are online in their bedrooms at night, but when an elderly man walks up to you in the Market Place in Romsey and says 'you are a traitor who deserves to be shot' that enters the real world.

"What sort of level of political discourse do we now have that just because I disagreed with that man on Brexit, he thinks I need to be killed."

Speaking about West Yorkshire MP, Jo Cox, who was killed just before the EU referendum in 2016, Ms Nokes said: "It has been three years since Jo Cox was shot and, although I did not know her well, I knew she was a kind person."

Ms Nokes also called for politicians to be "careful" about the language they use in the House of Commons, claiming she has called out colleagues who have used "careless language" and have not thought about the "impact of the words they are using".

She said: "I have had some fantastic support from women across the House of Commons and I think that is really crucial that we stand up for each other."

The parliamentary report was published on October 18.