Trolls take their toll as Sue Perkins leaves Twitter after Top Gear rumours
Great British Bake Off host Sue Perkins has quit Twitter after she received a flood of abuse from trolls after bookmaker Coral touted her to be the favourite to become Top Gear's new host.
Following Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal from the BBC in March as a result of a punch up with a show producer, rumours have been rife regarding who will take the lead in the newly formatted Top Gear.
Perkins, who has 574,000 followers on Twitter, suggested that rumours linking her to the Top Gear' role were "utterly fabricated" as she left the site.
Guys, post the utterly fabricated story about me & Top Gear, my timeline has been full of blokes wishing me dead...
— Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) April 14, 2015
This morning, someone suggested they'd like to see me burn to death.
— Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) April 14, 2015
All of which goes to say that I am off Twitter for a bit. Love and peace x
— Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) April 14, 2015
Comedian David Schneider leapt to Perkins’ defence.
In the future when they try to explain the bad internet they'll simply say "people sent death threats to someone as lovely as Sue Perkins".
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) April 14, 2015
As did the outspoken Katie Hopkins.
Come on @sueperkins, Don't quit Twitter and be beaten by the b*stards. Think ZERO. They're worth less than zero & you show zero f*cks given.
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) April 14, 2015
And Fearne Cotton.
@sueperkins there are some awful and sad humans out there. How pathetic. ps you absolutely rock!
— fearne cotton (@Fearnecotton) April 14, 2015
This comes after Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo in February admitted he was “frankly ashamed of how poorly we've dealt with [trolls]”.