news story

9th August 2007

Lib Dem MPs Lead the way on Facebook

Northavon MP Steve Webb has discovered that Liberal Democrat MPs are making the best use of the social networking site 'Facebook' to engage with local people.

A survey of MPs of all parties has established that the Conservatives have 24 MPs out of 195 on Facebook (12%), Labour has 47 MPs out of 352  signed up (13%), and the
Liberal Democrats have 25 MPs out of 63 on the site (40%).

Steve Webb himself has nearly 1,800 'friends' on the site, including more than 1,000 local Northavon residents. Many of these are young people in their teens and twenties who have contacted him about a variety of issues, from local bus fares to climate change.

The story has been covered by the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail.

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

"Young people are far less likely to vote than their parents and grandparents, yet many of them have strong views on local and national issues and want their voice to be heard.

"Social networking sites such as Facebook provide an ideal way for this conversation to take place."