The Cabinet #Reshuffle

As Parliament returned from the summer recess, the Prime Minister carried out the Coalition’s first major cabinet reshuffle today.

And there was only one place to keep on top of the news: Twitter. We’ve pulled together some facts about what’s been happening on Twitter over the last 24 hours:

• We have seen more than 65,000 mentions of the term ‘reshuffle’ and the hashtag #reshuffle
• The hashtag #reshuffle was the number one trending topic in the UK today
• The peak in Tweets about the reshuffle occurred at around 10am as Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) was announced as the new Secretary of State for Health
• 362 of the UK’s 650 MPs are on Twitter - you can check them out on this list

The most talked about politicians in the reshuffle were (in order of mentions):

1. Jeremy Hunt
2. Ken Clark
3. Baroness Warsi
4. Andrew Lansley
5. Maria Miller

For journalists and political enthusiasts alike, Twitter has been the place to be to keep abreast of developments, giving followers first-hand access to news and views from the political elite in their own words.

This morning Baroness Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) confirmed her departure from the role of Conservative party co-chairman in a tweet from the official @ToryChairman account:

Former Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan also took to Twitter to confirm her departure from the front bench from the @Welsh_secretary account:

Amid a steady stream of rumour and speculation, the Prime Minister’s official Twitter feed @Number10Gov became the authoritative source of information. Cameron and his team used the channel as the first place to publish official updates, including:

BBC sports presenter @GaryLineker was gripped, likening the reshuffle to last week’s football transfer deadline:

As we enter a new session of Parliament, Twitter will continue to be the go-to destination for anyone interested in politics, bringing constituents and commentators closer to the action than ever before.