Tweeting the #Reshuffle

This morning, Prime Minister @David_Cameron announced the first major cabinet reshuffle since 2012 in a Tweet:

Throughout the day, news of who was in — and who was out — broke first on Twitter. Over the last 24 hours:

• There have been more than a quarter of a million (260,000) tweets about the reshuffle
• The terms #reshuffle and reshuffle alone have been used more than 100,000 times
• The peak in Tweets about the reshuffle occurred between 9 and 10am as it was announced that Michael Gove would leave his role as Education Secretary to become Chief Whip
• 461 of the UK’s 650 MPs are on Twitter — you can check them out on this list. 

The reshuffle news started last night when William Hague (@WilliamJHague) used Twitter to announce that he was stepping down as Foreign Secretary after more than four years in the role.

Over the course of the day, appointments were then Tweeted out simultaneously through the official Twitter account for Number 10 (@Number10Gov), and David Cameron’s personal Twitter account (@David_Cameron). William Hague’s new role, the new Foreign Secretary, and Michael Gove’s move to Commons Chief Whip were the first changes to be announced:

The most retweeted Tweet from the reshuffle was the UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement that Nicky Morgan (@NickyMorgan01) was to become the new Education Secretary.

Nicky Morgan (@NickyMorgan01) also gained the largest percentage of new followers today, seeing a 50% increase. Greg Clark (@GregClarkMP), the new Minister for Science and Universities, received a 20% increase in followers.

The new make up of the Conservative part of government on Twitter is as follows:

• Prime Minister - David Cameron (@David_Cameron)
• Secretary of State for Scotland - Alistair Carmichael (@acarmichaelmp)
• Secretary of State for Education - Nicky Morgan (@NickyMorgan01)
• Secretary of State for Wales - Stephen Crabb (@SCrabbMP)
• Secretary of State for Health - Jeremy Hunt - (@Jeremy_Hunt)
• Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport - Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid)
• Secretary of State for International Development - Justine Greening (@JustineGreening)
• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Liz Truss (@trussliz)
• Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government - Eric Pickles (@EricPickles)
• Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills - Vince Cable (@vincecable)
• Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change - Edward Davey (@EdwardDaveyMP)

A complete collection of cabinet #reshuffle Tweets can be seen below:

Sky News (@SkyNews) has also neatly summed up the #reshuffle with this animated GIF:

As the parties begin to think ahead to the 2015 general election, Twitter will continue to be the go-to destination for anyone interested in government and politics, bringing constituents and commentators closer to the action than ever before.