Macclesfield MP David Rutley receives one 'toxic' Tweet a week, according to new figures.

The study was conducted by the BBC Shared Data Unit over a six-week period earlier this year.

They analysed 3 million tweets mentioning all 650 MPs over a six-week period to find out just how much of that could be classed as abuse.

In one of the largest studies of its kind, machine learning was used to rate each tweet for toxicity.

Macclesfield MP David Rutley (second from left) pictured outside Macclesfield Town Hall last week. (Image - Alexander Greensmith / Macclesfield Nub News)

For a tweet to be deemed as toxic, the definition reads 'toxicity is a "rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment that is likely to make someone leave a conversation". 

Macclesfield's Conservative MP David Rutley received six toxic tweets over the six-week study, which averages out as a toxic tweet every seven days. For context, Macclesfield's MP since 2010 received 485 tweets of any tone in this period, including the six which were marked as 'toxic'.

Rutley had much less instances than neighbouring constituency MPs such as Tatton's Esther McVey. She received 111 toxic tweets.

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Crewe MP Kieran Mullan received 17, meanwhile High Peak MP Robert Largan received 31.

However, Congleton MP Fiona Bruce received just four in the same period.

Nationally, more than 130,000 tweets mentioning MPs were considered likely to be 'toxic' and 20,000 'severely toxic'.

"Stupid" and "pathetic" were the two most commonly used adjectives in those tweets.   

Female MPs were more likely to be called "thick" and "ignorant" and be subject to sexualised language while their male counterparts were more likely to be called "liars".

All 20 of the MPs to receive the most abuse proportionally were not members of the cabinet or shadow cabinet. 

One user sent 128 toxic-rated tweets to male MPs and 85 to female MPs during the time period.

Conservative MPs were nearly twice as likely as a Labour MP to receive a tweet classed as 'severely toxic'.

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The study took place from March to April earlier this year.

Among the high profile MPs, Priti Patel ranked 7th with 4110 toxic-rated tweets, Matt Hancock got 2359, and then-PM Boris Johnson had 18907 tweets of this kind.

Twitter has been contacted for comment.

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