A FEMALE MP from North Yorkshire has spoken of her concerns about online bullying and harassment, after it was revealed she has suffered online death threats and abuse.

York Central MP Rachel Maskell said one person posted “she could be next” following the murder of fellow Yorkshire MP and friend Jo Cox by a far right extremist.

In the two days before Jo Cox was murdered, Ms Maskell was subjected to vile personal abuse on facebook and posts saying she should be shot.

She revealed that the counter terrorism unit was called in at one stage, and that she and her staff had been given an afternoon’s training in personal security by North Yorkshire Police, with security now being upgraded at her offices in Holgate Road and her home.

But the Labour MP has not been deterred from her public duties and continued to take part in the York Pride march just after receiving the threats.

She said North Yorkshire Police had been ‘incredibly supportive,’ and she also thanked her staff and her church, Gateway in Acomb, for their ‘fantastic’ help and support.

She said she firmly believed in freedom of speech and people had a right to criticise MPs’ views, but the harassment and personal abuse on social media had worsened considerably in recent years.

She said she had been shocked by the death of Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, whose murderer Thomas Mair was jailed for life in November.

“It shocked everybody but we had become friends and close colleagues,” she said. “When the death threats were made, it was obviously a real concern, as much for my staff as for me, as their office is a public space.”

She said the threats came to a peak last June, just after Jo Cox was shot and repeatedly stabbed in Birstall, shortly before she was due to hold a constituency surgery.

Much of the abuse of Ms Maskell centred on a video of a speech she gave in September 2015 at a York rally in support of refugees. She said yesterday that her comments was taken out of context. “What I was trying to say was that Britain, the sixth wealthiest nation in the world, should be capable of giving refuge to some of the most desperate people fleeing war and terror.”

Ms Maskell said the threats and abuse were part of a wider problem of bullying and intimidation on the Internet, particularly on social media and particularly of young people.

“I am pretty thick skinned but the people targeted are often young and very vulnerable, and subject to peer pressure,” she said.

North Yorkshire Police said the force had requested a website on which the threatening comments were posted to remove them, and this had happened.

Ms Maskell’s comments came after Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott spoken out last month about the abuse she received on social media, including rape threats.