Corbyn overtakes May as most talked-about politician on Twitter

JEREMY CORBYN overtook Theresa May as the most talkedabout politician on Twitter this week following the leak of the Labour manifesto.

Analysis of Twitter data showed the Labour leader’s share of the conversation jumped from 35 per cent the week before to 42 per cent between May 8 and 15 – a period when he drew large crowds for speeches in the north of England.

Theresa May was second with 34 per cent, in an almost straight swap on the week before. Labour also beat the Tories in mentions, with a 47 per cent share of tweets about the top five political parties, compared to the Conservatives’ 32 per cent. In terms of issues, the number of tweets about health surged as the NHS fell victim to a global cyber attack.

Of tweets containing terms relating to 13 top election topics, health held a 21 per cent share of the conversation, up from 11 per cent the previous week.

Brexit was the most tweetedabout issue with a 27 per cent share, but its share of conversation fell dramatically on the previous seven days, when it was mentioned in more than half of tweets relating to campaign issues. That was the week details of a dinner between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Theresa May were leaked to the media.

Despite being key issues for several of the major parties, immigration and housing were far down the list in terms of Twitter chatter, with both only claiming around a two per cent share of mentions. But despite his party’s climb in mentions, leader Tim Farron was still only the eighth most mentioned politician, behind Mr Juncker in sixth place.