ONE of the General Election prospective parliamentary candidates in South Wiltshire says this year’s campaign has been the most hostile he has ever known.

Dr Andrew Murrison, the constituency’s sitting MP, said he has fought six General Elections since 2001 and this one has been the worst.

Speaking at a hustings at Christ Church in Warminster on Wednesday evening, he said: “This campaign has been rancorous, unpleasant and the worst I have known.”

Dr Murrison said the personal abuse, particularly on social media, had been extremely hostile, vile and nasty, and posters had been defaced.

Other candidates at the hustings included Ellen Nicholson (Liberal Democrat) and Emily Pomroy-Smith (Labour). Julie Phillips (Green Party) did not attend. Chris Walford, her agent, attended instead.

Other candidates said the country was becoming more polarised between left and right wing viewpoints.

Ellen Nicholson said: “I have seen some really harsh language coming from the Labour Party, as they have slid further left, and the Conservative Party as they have slid further right. It’s been quite dreadful really.

“I think we have lost that tolerance and respect which we have to get back across society and in all parties.

“I found myself online recently looking at stab vests. That is how bad it has been recently and I can totally understand why some MPs are standing down.”

Mr Walford said: “Not all arguments can be brought down to 280 characters and, in doing so, issues get polarised.

“We live in a complicated world, facing complicated questions, with complicated answers.

“We have to move beyond this way of simplifying everything down to a binary question and a binary answer.

“The Conservative Party doesn’t play its part in that, masquerading as a fact-checking service.”

Earlier in the week, Dr Murrison was accused of blocking some people on social media who had criticised Tory policies and of failing to respond to their questions.

Emily Pomroy-Smith said: “We have had probably the worst General Election in terms of hate that has ever been seen and certainly social media has contributed to that.

“The biggest problem that we have at the moment is disregarding certain swathes of society and thinking that we are better than them.

“Actually, going round and blocking people who have asked perfectly polite questions is not my way of doing it.”