LABOUR MP Peter Kyle has hit back at online trolls for targeting him over his spelling mistakes.

In a candid radio interview, he said the so-called “spelling police” do not take his dyslexia seriously.

The MP for Hove and Portslade, who was first elected in 2015, said he gets picked up on his tweets every day.

Speaking on Jeremy Vine’s radio programme on BBC Radio 2, Mr Kyle said: “While much of the criticism is made in good humour, sometimes it can be brutal.”

The last time the MP’s dyslexia was formally assessed he was told he has the reading age of an eight-year-old.

He said this led some people to believe he could not cope with the everyday tasks of being an MP.

Mr Kyle said: “I think social media platforms like Twitter are blind in terms of being able to understand the challenges behind the people who are communicating.

“That lack of empathy when you are having exchanges means people can seize on mistakes and really be quite brutal in the way that they exploit them in order to make a political point.

"I have to caveat the fact that 95 per cent of the responses I get are humorous, especially when talking about coping with unseen disabilities like this.

“The humour is really important, it makes you appreciate the friendliness and supportiveness that comes your way. “

In October, Mr Kyle revealed that after he misspelled the word “border” – he put an “a” in it – many people were forgiving but a very small minority berated him.

One commenter even told him to “resign and let someone with a brain take over”.

Mr Kyle started a Twitter thread in which he gave a significant insight into how his dyslexia affects his everyday life.

The thread received more than 5,000 retweets and 19,000 likes.

He said: “I didn’t expect it to go as viral as it did.

“In politics I’ve always put a lot of effort into trying to see and understand the way that others see the world.

“I think it was incumbent on me to be honest about the challenges I have and to help people see the world through my eyes.”

The MP, 49, described how his dyslexia caused him embarrassment at school, where he was forced to read Shakespeare aloud to the class “one painful word at a time”.

He left school without any qualifications but said he decided to return aged 25.

He said: “Just imagine the humiliation of walking into that classroom.”

He went on to attend the University of Sussex, leaving with a degree and a PhD in community economic development.