Emma Reynolds condemns abuse of PM

It comes after an unnamed Tory backbencher was quoted in a Sunday newspaper as saying: "The moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted. She'll be dead soon."

The Prime Minister was also said to be 'in a killing zone' over her Brexit policy, and she was told to 'bring her own noose' to an upcoming meeting.

Emma Reynolds, the Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East, described the level of abuse directed towards politicians as 'appalling'.

She said she found the 'violent language' used by some Conservative MPs about the Prime Minister 'nasty, offensive and totally unacceptable'. "They should hang their heads in shame & stop," she added.

"The level of abuse, particularly on social media, received by MPs from all parties is appalling.

"Some MPs have also been subjected to death threats. These attacks are often targeted at women MPs and one of our dear colleagues and friends, Jo Cox, was murdered two years ago.

"So I find the comments by Tory MPs – about knifing the PM and saying she is entering the killing zone – shocking.

"If somebody made them against me, I would consider reporting them to the police."

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Commons Home Affairs committee, said the unnamed backbencher who made the comments should be publicly named to stop them from doing it again.

"This is vile and dehumanising language towards a woman MP, towards a Prime Minister who, no matter how much you might disagree with her, is someone who is doing a job in public life," she said.

"Nobody should be subject to that kind of violent language, which I think is normalising violence in public debate at a time when we lost Jo Cox, we have had threats against Rosie Cooper, we have had other violent death threats against women MPs."

Tory MP Nicky Morgan tweeted that it was 'not healthy politics' to use such language.