The news comes as David Cameron has said he is considering finally joining the social networking site, following his infamous ‘too many twits make a twat’ gaffe on Absolute Radio last July.
A report on Twitter and UK politics produced by Twitter politics channel Tweetminster analysed 800,000 posts to reveal how MPs, PPCs, parties and the political media are faring on the site.
Collectively Labour MPs and PPCs are more active, more frequently mentioned and have more followers than the other main parties combined. 'In terms of politicians, the Labour Party dominates all key metrics,' wrote the report.
However, the Conservatives’ official party account had ‘significantly greater reach’ than the other main parties, with more mentions and re-tweets.
The report said: ‘The data shows that the Conservatives are more effective at distributing their message from the top, yet less so at a grassroots level in terms of spreading these positions within conversations.
‘Labour has the opposite challenge – members drive conversations, yet the official line doesn’t strategically trickle down.’
A new poll revealed today that a third of voters still believe the Conservatives are the party of the ‘upper classes’.
Diffusion MD Daljit Bhurji responded to the report: ‘By stating that Labour is winning the Twitter battle, Tweetminster risks equating quantity for quality and noise for influence. This research shows that the official Conservative feed is way in front when it comes to reach and distribution of its messages which is significant, but the party could clearly be doing more.
He added: ‘You have to ask yourself, if Norman Tebbit can start blogging why can't Jeremy Hunt start Tweeting?’
The report noted that the Liberal Democrats fall ‘somewhere in between’ the Tories and Labour: ‘While the data is in line with expectations, and reach-wise the party punches above its weight when looking at the number of followers, its challenge is breaking into conversations that go beyond party supporters, especially in terms of how these then influence the mainstream media agenda.’
The report also revealed that senior party members can play a critical role in connecting with the public, drawing on the examples of Nick Clegg and Eric Pickles standing well above their parties' average metrics.
