A POLITICAL campaigner who left an angry post on social media after she was abused while doorstep canvassing says she has been left “shocked and in fear”.

The Liberal Democrat campaigner, who asked to remain anonymous, says she was delivering a survey in the Prettygate ward of Colchester when she was subjected to the verbal tirade by three men.

“What was said to me was simply appalling,” she said.

“I was out delivering a survey and knocked on someone’s door. The level of abuse directed towards me was unbelievable."

When she got home she left a damning post on her Facebook page including saying the Prettygate ward has “a lot in common” with Gilead – the dystopian setting of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

The canvasser said she left the post out of anger and upset at what was said to her on the doorstep and was not referring to all the people of Prettygate.

After the post was shared on Twitter by Colchester MP Will Quince, she claimed she had to deactivate her Facebook page due to further abusive messages.

She added: “To then have my Facebook post from my personal page tweeted about by my MP made things even worse.

“It seems someone who I was friends with on Facebook from the Conservative Party screenshotted the post.

“My settings are private, or at least I thought they were.

Sue Lissimore, Conservative ward councillor for Prettygate, said: “I was shocked by the post, we should respect other people’s views.

“This seems to be a blanket blame of Prettygate – a place where I have lived for 30 years and represented for 13. It is an amazing and lovely place to live."

In response to the abuse the canvasser experienced, Mr Quince said: “It can happen and we get it too. If it is at a serious level you can report it to the relevant authorities.

“It is never an excuse to label people more generally in that way.

“Anyone who lives in Prettygate who reads that post would be quite offended by it I’m sure.

“I represented the area for five years on the borough council and four and a half years as an MP - it was offensive.

“We have bad days on the doorstep, at times there are different views and opinions to ours - on that I sympathise with her.

“It is never an excuse to be so disrespectful. I think language is really important.”

He added: “This was left on a public forum. I was able to see the post myself.”

But Mark Cory, Liberal Democrat leader of Colchester Council, accused the MP of “enabling a witch hunt”.

“MPs should be championing the best of our communities at a time of division, instead he has enabled a witch hunt to occur whereby a resident who received abuse has now received more," he said.

“Two wrongs do not make a right, if there has been abuse it is easy to make a mistake when upset but if you are an MP you stand above that.

“He should be taking a role of leadership as MP, not getting down in the dirt and spreading it about.”