Follow the 2013 party conference season on Twitter

Monday, 16 September 2013

Every autumn, the three major UK political parties meet for their annual party conferences.

Party members and MPs come together to discuss policies and issues of importance, as well as to hear the keynote speeches from party leaders.

Twitter provides delegates with a live soundtrack to the party conferences, revealing policies, reactions and controversies in real time.

It’s also a great way for those following from afar to get closer to what’s going on in the heart of UK politics:

All three main parties and their leaders are on Twitter
459 out of 650 UK MPs are on Twitter (71%), up from 370 (56%) at this time last year
David Cameron (@David_Cameron) joined Twitter ahead of the 2012 Conservative Party Conference and is now the most followed UK MP on the platform
In 2012 there were more than a million mentions of the party conferences on Twitter.

More facts and stats from the 2012 party conference season can be found here, including the most tweeted-about moments of the leaders’ speeches.

Here’s a guide to following the three major conferences on Twitter in 2013:

Liberal Democrats: 14-18 September, Glasgow
Official hashtag: #LDConf
Official account: @LibDems
Leader: @Nick_Clegg
42/55 (76%) of Lib Dem MPs are on Twitter, see a full list here

Labour: 22-25 September, Brighton
Official hashtag: #Lab13
Official account: @UKLabour
Leader: @Ed_Miliband
184/257 (72%) of Labour MPs are on Twitter, see a full list here

Conservatives: 29 September-2 October, Manchester
Official hashtag: #CPC13
Official account: @Conservatives
Leader: @David_Cameron
183/304 (60%) of Conservative MPs are on Twitter, see a full list here

World Leaders on Twitter

It’s not just UK politicians who use Twitter. Two thirds of world leaders are on the platform, and the latest to join this prestigious group is the newly-elected Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg (@erna_solberg). The most-followed world leader on Twitter is Barack Obama (@BarackObama). You can see a full list of world leaders on Twitter here.