The United Kingdom’s new Trade Envoy to New Zealand has quit X (formerly Twitter) due to abuse, days after being appointed to the role.

Carolyn Harris, a Labour MP for Neath & Swansea East in Britain, said in a statement it was not a decision she made lightly but she could “no longer justify staying on this platform”.

“I’ve always believed in open conversation, healthy debate, and standing up for what I believe in. However, X is no longer a place for that. Instead, it has become a platform where abuse is normalised.”

Harris, whose official portrait shows her wearing a bright green shirt, stripy yellow and black glasses with purple and statement emerald earrings, said she wasn’t just being criticised for her work.

“But for my gender, the colour of my hair, glasses, and even my choice of clothing. That’s the level of toxicity X has become, and I refuse to be part of a space that allows abuse to thrive.”

Harris would be the newest Trade Envoy to New Zealand for the UK, filling a role meant to boost trade between the two countries, which signed a free-trade agreement in 2022.

She said this week she was delighted with the appointment.

“It is an important part of the Government’s mission to promote growth and with our nation’s free-trade agreement and membership of CPTPP, the opportunities are endless.”

Iona Thomas, the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, said the trading relationship between the two countries was “growing stronger and stronger”.

“The appointment of Carolyn Harris as the new trade envoy comes at a time when the trading future of our two countries is at an exciting juncture.”

Harris caught attention in 2021 after a screenshot was shared on social media that some claimed showed her sleeping in the House of Commons. She said she wasn’t asleep but looking down, reading from her phone.

She told the BBC at the time: “I can’t even tell you the things that have been said to me. I have had things like, ‘Is she a blowup? Do we need to re-inflate her?’, ‘Should we keep her wet overnight?’, ‘She looks as if she belongs in the corner of a pub’, ‘How on earth can anyone dress like that?’.

“It is about my weight, it is about my size, about my hair. It is just unbelievable.”

Months after that incident, it was reported Harris had quit as an aide to Labour leader — and now Prime Minister — Sir Keir Starmer after it was reported she was briefing against the party’s deputy leader.

Many people sharing Harris’ statement on Friday were critical of her.

The British Labour Government has come under immense scrutiny on the platform, with X’s owner, Elon Musk, openly saying “Starmer must go” and that he was a “national embarrassment”.

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.