SNP’s Pete Wishart wins parliament Twitter gong

Pete Wishart was named parliamentary tweeter of the year. Picture: Twitter/@petewishart

The Perth MP - who came top of the Tweets in the category with over 2,000 votes at the Political Twitter Awards - said: “I am delighted to have won this prestigious award and I want to thank everybody that voted for me as Parliamentary tweeter of the year.

“Social media is increasingly important to get our messages across and is increasingly the place where we all meet to discuss the issues and exchange views.

“Twitter allows us to have conversations with our constituents, promote the issues that are important to us and it is also just great fun.”

Ed Miliband was likened to troubled star Liza Minnelli after winning the prize for selfie of the year, after being pictured at the back of a group that also included actor Emma Thompson in a photo with Joey Essex.

His position in the shot saw him compared to the Cabaret star who was crowded out of American comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ record-breaking Oscars selfie last year.

The judging panel, which included Channel 4’s Michael Crick, described the party leader as “being the Liza Minnelli of this selfie”.

Respect MP George Galloway came second in the vote and also won most prolific backbench tweeter while Green Party MP Caroline Lucas came third.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry was awarded the Twitter gaffe of the year for her tweet of a picture of a house draped in flags with a white van parked outside and captioned it ‘’Image from Rochester’’. She was forced to quit as shadow attorney general after it provoked a storm of protest.

The awards were set up by lobbying firm Westminster Public Affairs.

Managing director Olly Kendall said: “Huge congratulations to Pete for his victory. He won the popular vote by a fair margin over his closest competitor.

“It is arguably telling that the top three in the Parliamentary tweeter of the year category voted for by the public are not from Westminster’s three biggest parties. It suggests that Twitter can be an effective tool for MPs from the other parties, giving them a platform that the traditional media does not always provide them with.”