The Archbishop of Canterbury has hit back at those trolling a Kent MP after she was accused of transphobia.

Most Rev Justin Welby has defended Rosie Duffield, saying she "does not seek to demean others".

It comes after the Canterbury and Whitstable MP got into a keyboard war after seemingly liking a controversial Piers Morgan tweet.

But the archbishop took to Twitter yesterday evening to offer his support to Ms Duffield - which she later retweeted.

"I know Rosie Duffield who is a brilliant constituency MP for Canterbury as well as brave, honest, kind and passionate for justice," he wrote.

"She does not seek to demean others. To troll her is simply cruel and wrong."

Ms Duffield's followers were able to see that she had liked a tweet, in which Mr Morgan seemed to take issue with CNN referring to "individuals with a cervix"

The action was raised by Labour activist and Canterbury resident Sarah Cundy.

"Add to the list of reasons Rosie Duffield needs booting, she’s a transphobe too," she tweeted.

Ms Duffield then responded: "I'm a 'transphobe' for knowing that only women have a cervix....?!"

When a follower shared an article in response to referring to trans men with a cervix, the Labour MP said: "Of course this applies to some people, they'll know who they are and this advice is great.

"But the implication that one cannot describe oneself as a woman without inviting a pile-on is beyond ridiculous now. Almost 52% of the UK population are women."

Ms Duffield then went on say the CNN tweet "isn't a post about transphobia" but about "female body parts".

She said it was "hugely insulting to all women, trans or cis".

There were widespread calls on the site for Ms Duffield to resign her post as MP, and just as many accounts defending her posts.

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