Internet trolls who target people with abusive material online will face up to two years in jail under UK Government plans being set out by the Justice Secretary.

Chris Grayling said he was determined to crack down on trolling with harsh punishments because it was leading to "absolute misery for victims".

He said the venom thrown at people over the internet would never be acceptable in real life.

He said: "We already have offences in place to deal with this appalling behaviour, but we've toughened up the law to make sure these crimes can be properly investigated and those who commit the most serious offences face a longer prison sentence."

Cases are currently dealt with under the Malicious Communications Act in the magistrates courts, with a maximum sentence of six months.

Now Mr Grayling is changing the law so the most serious cases can be passed on to the Crown Courts where they could result in much longer sentences.

It comes after Peter Nunn was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail after an online "campaign of hatred" against the Labour MP Stella Creasy.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Grayling said trolls were "cowards who are poisoning our national life".

And Ms Madeley told the paper she supported the change, describing the current laws as outdated.

They were drawn up 10 years ago - before Twitter even existed.

She said: "The current law obviously needs to be reviewed. It needs to be accepted that physical threats should not fall under the 'freedom of speech' umbrella.

"It should be seen as online terrorism and it should be illegal."

Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Blair said trolling is "probably the most challenging thing facing policing over the next 10 years".

He said "a huge amount of people's lives, especially young people's lives, is now lived on the internet. And if it's lived on the internet and there are criminals on the internet then police are going to have go into the internet."