WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has responded to a petition set up by Katie Price, after the model's disabled son was cruelly mocked on social media.

Also known as Jordan, the 40-year-old TV personality’s son Harvey – who is partially-blind, autistic and has Prader-Willi syndrome – has repeatedly been targeted by online trolls.

She set up a petition calling on the Government to make online abuse a specific offence, and to create a register of such offenders.

An inquiry was triggered after the petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures.

Warrington North MP Helen Jones is chairman of the House of Commons Petitions Committee, which has found that the self-regulation of social media has ‘failed’ and that current laws are ‘not fit for purpose’.

Mrs Jones said: "Our inquiry into online abuse and the experience of disabled people has shown that social media is rife with horrendous, degrading and dehumanising comments about people with disabilities.

"The law on online abuse is not fit for purpose and it is truly shameful that disabled people have been forced off social media while their abusers face no consequences.

"There is no excuse for the continued failure to make online platforms as safe for disabled people. Self-regulation has failed disabled people and the law must change to ensure more lives are not destroyed."

Warrington Guardian:

Warrington North MP Helen Jones

A report by the Petitions Committee found that the government and social media platforms should consult with disabled people on digital strategies and hate crime law, and that the latter need to accept responsibility for ‘allowing toxic environments to exist unchallenged’.

Laws on hate crime should also give disabled people the same protections as people targeted due to the their race or religion, it added – with perpetrators of such abuse ‘not appropriately punished’ at present.

Meanwhile, one in five organisations contacted by the inquiry found that a ‘high proportion of abusive content’ against disabled people was linked to football.

A Government spokesman said: "As part of the Online Harms White Paper, we are bringing in new laws and reviewing existing ones to make the internet safer for everyone – including disabled people."