Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has revealed she received three death threats in six years as she backed a campaign urging Twitter to do more to stop online abuse.

Dugdale joined First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson in exposing the extent of the hate-filled invective hurled at female politicians using the platform.

The three politicians are supporting Amnesty's Toxic Twitter campaign challenging the social media giant to take steps to address the problem.

A YouGov survey of 1110 British women commissioned by the charity found only 9% thought Twitter was doing enough to stop violence and abuse against women.

Dugdale revealed she had gone to the police a few years ago after one user suggested she should be bayoneted.

She said: "If I were to show you my Twitter @reply column just now, 90% of it would be abuse.

"Now I have to look at that every time to scroll through the good stuff trying to find those people who are genuinely trying to engage.

"Probably ten or 20 times a day I am scrolling through absolute mountains of abuse.

"There's different levels of abuse and harassment within that spectrum, some of it very serious indeed."

The MSP added: "Three times in the six years I've been an elected politician I've felt it serious enough to report to the police. That's involved three death threats in six years."