This week I was honoured to give evidence to the UK Parliament Human Rights Committee on the rise in abuse of MPs.

This issue is absolutely interfering with democracy. We are getting threatened and a line must be drawn.

Being an MP is an honour, but we should be able to work in safety.

MPs are resilient people. The very nature of what we put ourselves forward to do – to go through selection rounds and get elected – means you cannot be a shrinking violet. You have to be fairly robust.

However, I think this is reaching a point, or reached a point some time ago, when what is going on isn’t acceptable.

Most people we meet in our constituencies and Parliament are very pleasant, very nice, even if you have totally different viewpoints. I would like to stress that this is not all of society, this is a small group of people.

However, we are getting threatened and I think a line must be drawn. Once something crosses the line, it should be clamped down on quite severely.