Louise Mensch brands politician waiting in hospital with son 'scumbag' in Twitter row

Louise Mensch has provoked a backlash on Twitter after calling a man who disagreed with Jeremy Hunt's re-appointment as Health Secretary a "loathsome scumbag".

The fomer Conservative MP, who left her post to spend time with her family, appeared to mock a father waiting for his son in surgery because of their political differences over Mr Hunt.

Jonathan Bartley had taken his 14-year-old son, who was born with spina bifida and is suffering from a 90 degree curvature of the spine, to St George's hospital in London to try to get him into theatre.

When the surgeon told him he was yet again too overbooked to fit in Mr Bartley's son - with 17 emergency operations alone to do by the weekend - news arrived that Jeremy Hunt might be losing his brief as Health Secretary.

Mr Bartley, who is also work and pensions spokesperson for the Green Party, sent out a single tweet saying a cheer had gone up among the staff:

He then said the decision by new Prime Minister Theresa May to keep Mr Hunt in the post after all was unlikely to encourage NHS workers.

Ms Mensch, who has been accused of sending offensive tweets before, tweeted a number of responses to both Mr Bartley and his defenders before concluding he was a "loathsome tit".

She also said she believed junior doctors who were striking over changes to their pay and working hours were "selfish".

Jonathan Bartley said he was "surprised" at her response, adding that Twitter users had sent him supportive messages but some had also targeted Ms Mensch with unacceptable abuse.

"I was surprised. I don't hold a grudge against her. She's entitled to her opinion," Mr Bartley told The Independent.

"I was saddened by the huge anger and abuse that Louise received. It was harsh. Some of the stuff she got back was much more vile than what she said to me."

Some of the less offensive posts suggested it was Ms Mensch's tweet that had been "vile". Others referred to her previous admissions of plastic surgery or re-tweeted an article in which she once cited her poor mental health.

Jeremy Hunt is widely seen as a controversial figure in David Cameron's former cabinet after imposing a contract on junior doctors which counts the weekend as normal working time and changes pay frameworks.

More than 98 per cent of junior doctors went on strike over the issue - the first general strike by medical unions in 40 years - and the contract was rejected by the 54,000 junior doctors in England in a ballot in July.

Yet Mr Hunt is set to follow the contract through, and has now kept his post to do so.

Mr Bartley added that post-Brexit Britain felt a divided place, in which people echoed polarised opinions on social media especially.

"There's a real issue in terms of Facebook and Twitter - you exist in your own bubble," he said.

"So where social media could be playing a really good role in encouraging debate, what tends to happen is everyone has a distorted sense of reality."