British prime minister David Cameron has become the latest politician to start an account on micro-blogging website Twitter - and immediately picked up more than 75,000 followers.
Mr Cameron once said that he would steer clear of the site, which allows users to send out messages in 140 characters or fewer, famously saying that he was worried that “too many tweets make a twat”.
But Downing Street has recently been sending out quotes in the PM’s name on the Number 10 Twitter feed, and on the first day of the Conservative conference in Birmingham today, he launched a personal account @David_Cameron, which he will use to spread the word about his work as Tory leader.
In his first message, he jokingly recalled his previous reluctance to tweet, saying: “I’m starting Conference with this new Twitter feed about my role as Conservative Leader. I promise there won’t be ‘too many tweets...”’
Mr Cameron is so far following just eight Twitter feeds - belonging to the Conservative Party, as well as Conservative cabinet colleagues William Hague, Jeremy Hunt, David Jones, Maria Miller, Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps, as well as Tory mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is believed to be the MP with the most Twitter followers, at about 165,000, followed by Mr Hague (105,000) and Mr Miliband’s brother David (100,000).
Worldwide, the politician with the biggest Twitter following is US president Barack Obama, with more than 20 million. Others with large numbers of followers include Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (3.5 million) and Queen Rania of Jordan (2.3 million).
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is not a prolific tweeter and the 13,200 followers have not received an update from @EndaKennyTD since July.
PA