On Twitter: what does Ashfield's MP do?

Ashfield MP Lee Anderson is one of just a few dozen MPs not to have an active Twitter account, analysis of his online activity reveals.
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In the last of our series looking at the work of our politicians, we analysed how active the Conservative MP for Ashfield is on social media.

But analysis by Motive PR shows Mr Anderson did not have a Twitter account at the time the research was done at the end of March.

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This means he is one of just 57 MPs not using the popular social media app.

Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield.Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield.
Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield.

A spokeswoman for the MP said: “Mr Anderson doesn’t user Twitter – most people in Ashfield don’t either.

“Some politicians use the platform for networking or to enhance their profile due to being national politicians. Mr Anderson isn’t interested in doing this, as he wants to engage in Ashfield matters.”

MPs that do have an account send an average of 3.5 tweets per day, while Labour MP Karl Turner is the most prolific tweeter – sending an average of 26.1 per day for 12 years.

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The roughly 600 MPs with accounts had sent almost eight million tweets between them by the end of March.

But Motive said they found little correlation between the number of tweets and retweets an MP sent, and the number of followers they have.

Despite his steady output, Mr Turner has fewer than 41,000 followers, below the average of 54,300 for MPs with accounts.

And though he has tweeted fewer than 6,000 times, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s account is followed by 4.1 million people.

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He is one of just four MPs with more than a million followers – ahead of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, at 2.4m, current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, at 1.2m, and former Prime Minister Theresa May, with 1m.

Of parties with at least 10 members, Labour was reaching the largest section of the electorate – with an average of 63,500 followers each.

Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party's 45 members averaged just 29,300 each.

Despite not taking their seats in the Commons due to their abstentionist policy, Sinn Fein MPs have tweeted almost 80,000 times from their official accounts.