Study reveals which MPs use Twitter the most

A new study has revealed which MPs are the most prolific on Twitter – with the SNP’s Angus MacNeil topping the list with almost 120,000 tweets.

The Scottish MP, who represents Na h-Eileanan an Iar in the Hebrides, has tweeted more often than any other Westminster MP, according to original research by communications agency Motive.

Mr MacNeil’s impressive total means he has posted more than 830 tweets every month since he joined Twitter in June 2009 – an average of 26 tweets every single day.

Mr MacNeil has tweeted 119,200 times making him one of only three Westminster MPs who have racked up more than 100,000 tweets each.

Conservative MP Karl McCartney is the Tory’s most prolific tweeter with more than 113,200 tweets posted.

The MP for Lincoln joined Twitter slightly earlier than Mr MacNeil in March 2009 meaning he has averaged 721 tweets every month since – around 24 each day.

Ilford North MP Wes Streeting is Labour’s most active tweeter with a total of 106,300 tweets posted since he joined Twitter in February 2009. He has averaged 673 tweets every month or around 22 each day.

Mr Streeting is one of six Labour MPs in the top ten with the other five being Karl Tanner, Andrew Gwynne, Stella Creasy, Emma Hardy and Chris Bryant.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron completes the top ten with more than 82,900 tweets posted since October 2009 – that’s 553 every month or about 18 every day.

Other prolific tweeters in the House of Commons include Jess Phillips who has posted 74,100 tweets since February 2009 – averaging 469 tweets a month or about 16 times a day.

The researchers found little connection between the frequency of tweets and the number of followers.

MPs with the most followers tend to be the best known with Boris Johnson having 4.1m followers but only posting 5,600 tweets.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has far less followers at 1.2m but has tweeted slightly more than his Conservative counterpart with almost 8,000 tweets.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has gathered 79,000 followers on the social media platform and has tweeted more than 9,500 times.

Researchers at communications agency Motive looked at the numbers of followers and tweets of every Westminster MP.

Both tweets and retweets were counted in the totals and averages were worked out based on how long each MP had been on the platform.

Motive director Steve McComish said: “Twitter is a great way for MPs to communicate with both their constituents and the wider public.

“It’s also a platform which is very well used by journalists and the media so MPs know they can get their views across to a large audience very quickly.

“Our study highlights which MPs are most prolific on Twitter with just three managing more than 100,000 posts so far.

“Getting to that kind of number takes some doing with these MPs having to post dozens of times every day for more than a decade to reach six figures.

“While being active on social media does help anyone to grow their audience our study also reveals that frequency of tweeting alone doesn’t guarantee followers.

“It’s the MPs with the highest profile off twitter who tend to have the largest following on the platform.”