A week since polls opened, over 1000 people have voted in this year’s ‘Parliamentary Tweeter of the Year’ category - part of the new 2015 Political Twitter Awards. Established by lobbying and PR agency, Westminster Public Affairs, these new awards celebrate the best and worst of MPs and Peers on Twitter.
The ‘Parliamentary Tweeter of the Year’ category is decided by public vote, with every one of the more than 460 MPs who use Twitter eligible. Polls remain open until 9th March and people can cast their vote by visiting politicaltwitterawards.com. In addition to the public vote, nine other categories will be decided by a panel of judges which includes Channel 4’s Political Correspondent, Michael Crick.
Responding to his nomination colourful Conservative MP Michael Fabricant told his Twitter followers "Screw the BAFTAs! I have been nominated for the @TwitterUK @Awards_Politics".
Mike Williams, Political Consultant at Westminster Public Affairs, said: “We’ve had a huge response to the awards already with people voting for a wide range of MPs in this year’s Parliamentary Tweeter of the Year category” continuing “It takes just 10 seconds to cast your vote so tell us who you think deserves to win and ensure that deserving MPs are recognised for embracing the social media platform”.
There are ten categories in this year’s inaugural awards including the ‘The Hack of the Pack Award’ which celebrates the most effective political journalist on Twitter. The full list is:
- Selfie of the Year
- The ‘Ed Balls’ Twitter Gaffe of the Year
- Best Parody Account
- Funniest Tweet
- Most Prolific Backbench Tweeter
- Apology of the Year
- Most Influential Tweet
- Best Constituency Tweeter
- Parliamentary Tweeter of the Year (voted for by the public)
At the end of last year Westminster Public Affairs published its ‘Parliamentary Twitter Analysis 2014’ in which it found that the use of Twitter by MPs was on the rise, with 71% of MPs now using the site and a select few sending more than 5,000 tweets each year.