MP Carolyn Harris gets 'horrendous abuse' over PMQs screenshot

MP Carolyn Harris said a lot of the abuse centred on her appearance and was "bullying and misogyny"

An MP says she received "horrendous abuse" after a screenshot was shared on social media wrongly claiming to show her asleep in the House of Commons.

Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East, said the picture from Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday "opened the floodgates" to relentless abuse".

Ms Harris said a lot of the abuse centred on her appearance and was "bullying and misogyny".

She added her children were "devastated" to see the abuse.

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Ms Harris, who is also deputy leader of Welsh Labour, told BBC 5 live when she saw the photograph - a screenshot of her reading from phone during the session on Wednesday - her "only thought" was how it was an "awful angle".

She said she then received abuse across social media from people wrongly criticising her for being asleep.

She said someone even shouted at her at her front door, "did you enjoy your snooze?".

Carolyn Harris said she was looking at her phone in the photo that was shared on social media

She said: "I categorically did not - and would never - go to sleep during any session in work.

"It is just not something i would do and for anyone to say that and open the floodgates.

"I can't even tell you the things that have been said to me. I have had things like, 'Is she a blow up? Do we need to re-inflate her?', 'Should we keep her wet overnight?', 'She looks as if she belongs in the corner of a pub', 'How on earth can anyone dress like that?'.

"It is about my weight, it is about my size, about my hair. It is just unbelievable."

Ms Harris said cases like this raised issues about why more women did not go into politics.

'Intimidation and harassment'

"I'd like to say I have grown a second skin and can pretend it's not happening but I'm human," she said.

"I'm a wife, I'm a daughter. I am just like any other woman. Nobody should insult anybody else.

"It's bullying, it's intimation, it's harassment, it's misogyny, even from the women."

She shared some of the abuse she had received via her Twitter account.

Ms Harris added she had seen politicians from all parties being subjected to similar insults.

"I have found myself this afternoon thinking, 'should I change the way that I sit in the chamber or should I change my natural movement' and then I thought, 'why should I change?'," she said.

"I am 60 years of age, I've sat like that all my life. I can't change the way I am just to suit other people and why should I?"