Shapps accused of inflating Twitter followers

Housing minister Grant Shapps, recently cleared of fiddling with housing statistics, has been caught up in a new numbers row, this time on Twitter.

He has been accused of using ‘bots’ to boost his follower numbers – a robot by which follower numbers can be inflated by up to 500 a day.

Shapps, who uses @grantshapps, has more than 54,000 followers. He has tweeted 4,297 times since March 2008 and is following nearly 25,000 other Twitterers.

The altercation began with former Labour deputy prime minister Lord Prescott tweeting: “Are you coping with the emotion loss of @grantshapps following & unfollowing you?”

To this, someone replied asking if there was a support group for “I was temporarily followed by Grant Shapps survivors”.

Prescott – who let us not forget used to run the country in the absence of Tony Blair – tweeted again, asking Shapps why he had started following someone with ten followers, who comes from Reykjavik and has tweeted four times, the last time being in October 2009.

Shapps has refused to rise to the bait, but did dedicate a tweet to all those annoyed that he has ever followed or disappointed that he hasn’t.

Shapps’ aides declined to comment on whether he had used an auto-bot to boost his following, but this is not the first time that the housing minister has hit Twitter controversy.

A fake Grant Shapps (@Grantmeshelter) also tweets regularly and with breath-taking political incorrectness. He recently posted up his thoughts on Right to Buy, saying: “CRAZEE discounts for secure council tenants who want to buy – snap it up before yr out on your ears ya workshy freeloaders.”

Which is far more interesting than the real Shapps’ tweets, of which a prime example is: “Congratulations to Adactus Housing Group for deciding to publish invoices over £99.99 & in spreadsheet form.”