Is your local MP ashamed of their party (and given recent events can you blame them)? Do they wear their party affiliation loud and proud on their social media profile or do you have to scrat around their posts to figure out which rosette they wear at election time?
The process involved looking for evidence of party affiliation in the following 3 areas: Bio (including twitter handle), Profile Picture, & Banner Picture on the grounds that these are the core elements of the twitter profile. All data was taken circa 22/01/2022. We were prepared to be generous. Pictures including party logos (even if the party name wasn't visible) and rosettes corresponding to party colours would all be counted as evidence of party affiliation. We fired up the algorithm (for algorithm read 'four tedious hours wading through MP Twitter accounts....') to glean this data for your perusal.
According to research conducted by We Need to Talk About Bevan of the 312 Conservative MPs using twitter under half (45%) have their Conservative Party affiliation on display under the three headings listed below. In stark contrast of Labour's 192 tweeting MPs 92% have their respective party membership in evidence. To go over those numbers again from a different angle over half (55%) of the Tory MPs that are on twitter fail to have the words Tory or Conservative Party (WNTTAB would also have accepted 'feckless reactionary') in their Bio, Profile Picture or Banner Picture.
There is at least one reason why an MP might feel they should leave off their party affiliation. Members of Parliament are elected to represent all their constituents and as such may feel that their public facing social media should be geared as such to be as welcoming as possible. As a counterpoint they were explicitly elected as a member of specific party and therefore it is reasonable to make their link clear (in particular if that party is embroiled in issues like cutting free school meal provision, racism allegations, and similar).
The initial intention was to drill down through the data to see if MPs in the so called 'Red Wall' seats (a term which WNTTAB cordially despises as an inexact media confection which disrespects both constituents and constituency activists. Every time someone uses the phrase 'Red Wall' not in relation to anthropomorphic animals the devil does a jig and Gaitskell charges someone for a pair of glasses) but as there is no firm agreement as to what those seats are it will be placed on hold for the moment. Therefore we shall look at some of the more esoteric results of the search.
Both Labour and Conservative MPs have demonstrated a penchant for banner pictures featuring their respective party placards (preferably in the hands of local activists). In the great war between the Socialist Shield Wall and the Tory Testudo it is the former than wins out. 23% of Labour MPs on twitter have a Party placard adorning their profile but only 6% of their Tory counterparts can claim the same.
The Liberal Democrats demonstrate some admirable message discipline with 100% of their House of Commons contingent expressing their Lib Dem affiliation front and (broadly) centre. It would be petty to observe that such message discipline is easier to enforce when your numbers consist of a football team with two subs... Moving on to an even smaller grouping (of one) the Green Party's solitary representative manages to mention their party twice in their bio.
Crossing over the Irish Sea there is evidence of consensus albeit in terms of every Member of Parliament very clearly stating which party they support. That aside a fairly standard distribution of banner photos and pictures of the respective MPs.
Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party both demonstrate that civic national parties have consistent branding identities with a full house for the former and all bar one for the second showing their party affiliation. Almost exclusively it is the SNP who (45% of which) incorporate their political party directly into their Twitter handles (along with a Lib Dem, a member of the DUP, and handful of Labour). The ease of an initialism probably plays its part. The SNP are also fond of a flag or two, the two being the Saltire and the other being the flag of the European Union.
Speaking of flags the Union Flag (WNTTAB take the possibly erroneous vexillological view that it's only the Union Jack when at sea) was present in half a dozen incidences (predominantly Conservative). The nearest thing to regional flags was the flag of Cumberland (from which part of the world WNTTAB hails from) and the comparatively recent (and not without incident) Flag of the Black Country (where WNTTAB currently resides).
Throughout the investigation WNTTAB was exposed to a form of banner which may be dubbed 'Constituency Landscape'. Often bucolic 21% of those elected to the House of Commons are big fans of what is usually a rolling hill, blue sky, a local feature, and often what appears to be a focus grouped tree placed artfully to one side.
Banner pictures including military hardware were solely the preserve of the Conservatives (two tanks and a brace of aircraft carriers if you're interested). Over thirty MPs had pictures featuring the House of Commons (in case people forgot where they worked) and half a dozen MPs felt the need to be pictured in hard hats and high vis. Only one Labour MP featured badges on their profile and that is frankly a rookie number.
A dozen Tory MPs have pictures with Boris Johnson either as a sign of support or perhaps ablative armour against accusations of disloyalty. The SNP contingent show a greater level of support for their leader (proportionally) with five featuring pics with Nicola Sturgeon. Keir Starmer summons around the same in absolute numbers as the Nicola but alas much lower proportionally (although this may be due to his tenure as leader coinciding with Covid and therefore fewer opportunities where it would be acceptable for the smiling leader amidst a throng of activists pic).
WNTTAB is keenly aware that a whistle-stop tour of one form of MP social media is not necessarily the most authoritative investigation but it is at least indicative that there are trends as to their presentation on twitter. It seems that lockdown breaking 'work events' aren't the only parties that Tory MPs wish to keep hidden.
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