Young pro-Brexit Conservative thanks Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt for support as she prepares to stand for election

After Elena Bunbury appeared on BBC Question Time in September last year, championing a no-deal Brexit, she woke up the next morning to messages on social media calling her a ‘Tory slut’ – even digging up bikini photos from her private Instagram account.

In an interview with The Times, she said it was at this point that Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt, now defence secretary, got in touch with her, asking ‘are you okay?’ and offered her the support of the Conservative Party press office, which could advise her on how to move forward from the avalanche of hate messages.

In the interview, Miss Bunbury said: ‘I'm unbelievably grateful to Penny for how she did that.

‘Without it, life would have been mad.’

Ms Mordaunt herself is no stranger to social media abuse, experiencing it in particular when she appeared on ITV diving programme Splash! in 2014.

Speaking to The News at the time, she said: ‘People make all kinds of comments about me now – I feel sorry for these people.’

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