@David_Cameron Joins Twitter, PM Receives Immediate Abuse

David Cameron Joins Twitter @David_Cameron, Gets Quite A Lot Of Abuse

David Cameron has joined Twitter @David_Cameron, and perhaps inevitably has not been welcomed by all users of the site.

The prime minister sent his first tweet at 5.55pm on Saturday and had almost 50,000 followers by 8pm.

"I'm starting Conference with this new Twitter feed about my role as Conservative Leader. I promise there won't be "too many tweets...," he said.

When asked in 2009 whether he was on Twitter, Cameron famously replied: "I think that politicians do have to think about what we say, and the trouble with twitter is, too many tweets might make a tw*t."

Cameron currently only follows four other people; Boris Johnson, health secretary Jeremy Hunt, foreign secretary William Hague and the official Conservative Party account.

Since joining Twitter the prime minister has already received some rather negative tweets (many of which are not printable), including from Labour's shadow health minister Jamie Reed.

"Ay up Dave lad (northern) why do you keep telling lies about the NHS?" he said.

Comedian Jose Long told him: "I'm sorry to have to let you know like this, but everybody really dislikes you and disagrees with what you're up to.”

The prime minister will be hoping not to repeat the mistakes of other politicians on Twitter, including Ed Miliband, whose account once accidentally mistyped 'Blockbusters" as "Blackbusters" soon after Labour MP Diane Abbott got accused of making a racist comment on the site.

Close

What's Hot