SOUTH Essex MP James Duddridge has one of the highest percentages of fake Twitter followers in the county, according to research carried out into each Essex member.

A new report by search and social agency, Climbing Trees, has revealed the most and least savvy MPs on social media in Essex.

The figures revealed Rochford and Southend East’s MP, Mr Duddridge is the fifth most popular Essex-based member of parliament on social media having built up 14,351 followers since he launched his Twitter feed in March 2010.

But researchers found about one in five of his followers are likely to be fake. The percentage is second only to Harlow MP Robert Halfon, with 27.1 per cent of his followers believed to be fake.

Fake followers are defined as accounts which are unreachable and do not display the account’s tweets, which is usually because either because they are spam or propaganda or because they are no longer active on Twitter.

The Essex MP with the most followers is Witham’s Priti Patel, who has 51,463 followers but at the bottom of the pile, Sir David Amess, MP for Southend West had just 1,231 followers at the research was taken.

The survey also revealed the MPs with the most tweets.

In first place with 48,267 tweets was Harlow’s Robert Halfon MP, and the MP with the least tweets was MP for Maldon, John Whittingdale, with just 159 tweets.

James Duddridge MP has tweeted  7,313 times.

The research also looked at how well MPs were engaging with their followers.

The highest engagement score went to MP for Colchester, Will Quince, with 87 per cent, and the lowest engagement score went to MP for Castle Point, Rebecca Harris, who only scored 14 per cent for engagement.

James Duddridge MP received a positive 82 per cent engagement score. Jackie Doyle Price, MP for Thurrock, joined Twitter in May 2009 and has tweeted 4,043 times.

She has 7,247 followers, 15 per cent which are believed to be fake.

Stephen Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, joined Twitter in December 2011 and has tweeted 4,375 times and has 4,953 followers, 13 per cent of which are believed to be fake.

Neither John Baron, MP for Basildon and Billericay, nor Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, were found to be on Twitter.

Alex Holliman, managing director of researchers Climbing Trees, said he believes it’s vital to see how MPs communicate with constituents online.

He added: “Social media has become a very democratic and speedy way for citizens to engage with their MP, that’s why we wanted to conduct a survey to see how our local MPs were utilising social media.

“The findings have been very interesting. I would encourage all to checkout their local MP online and feel empowered to communicate directly.”