Colchester’s MP has reported what he describes as “vile” abuse to the Metropolitan Police.

Will Quince said he had been reluctant to act, but following advice had reported the “deeply offensive tweets” to law enforcers.

Following a blog post about Labour’s by-election campaign in Copeland, the MP spoke of his shock at the reaction from a “vile individual”.

The Conservative, whose son Robert was stillborn in 2014, said Labour’s claim that mothers and babies would die if the Conservatives win in Copeland was “disgusting”.

After his blog was published on the Huffington Post he was attacked on social media, with one critic telling him that he was “Glad his Tory baby is dead”.

Mr Quince published a screen grab of the post, which was deleted on Twitter, writing: “Kinder, gentler politics - I am genuinely shocked by this tweet. What a nasty piece of work.”

The Essex MP earlier wrote that he had been left “angry and sad in equal measure” by a Labour leaflet distributed in the Cumbria seat referring to plans to close a maternity ward at the West Cumberland Hospital. The leaflet said: “Midwives have said that if these changes go ahead ‘Mothers will die. Babies will die. Babies will be brain damaged.”