Ex-Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson stands by 'What a pathetic cretin' tweet in reply to hospital photo of young boy

Anthony Hobley tweeted a picture of his stepson, wrapped in an EU flag, following an operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital with the words: "My stepson had an operation yesterday @GreatOrmondSt. He’s incredibly brave but gutted he can’t be at the #PeoplesVoteMarch today with his brothers & sisters. You can see he’ll be there in spirit & his brothers are saluting him with a dab! #PeoplesVote #peoplesvotemarch"

The People's Vote March took place on Saturday in London with thousands of people calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal .

Former Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson and Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Davis, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, replied "What a pathetic cretin" causing outrage from hundreds of people across the political spectrum on Twitter.

Conservative MP Anna Soubry tweeted: "When any scrap of humanity is overwhelmed by ideology @BrexitStewart is a bitter man gone badly wrong.

Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Illford North in Essex tweeted: "@BrexitStewart this is beneath you. You should delete it and issue a grovelling apology."

Current Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya said: "If they attack you personally it's because they have a not a single political argument left" according to Margaret Thatcher.

"Perhaps time would be better spent commenting on the Tory Brexit mess rather than abusing innocent families on the internet. A nasty, needless comment."

But Mr Jackson has stood by his tweet.

He replied: "What sort of individual invades their sick child's privacy at a sensitive time to make a political point about the so called Peoples Vote? Really. Awful."

The Peterborough Telegraph approached Mr Jackson for further comment but he said he had none.