A REPORT has revealed which MPs are the most popular on Twitter, and which have the most "fake" followers.

Just under 20 per cent of the Colchester MP's Twitter followers are "fake", research has shown.

Colchester's MP, Will Quince, is the seventh most popular Essex-based member of parliament on Twitter.

However the report by search and social agency, Climbing Trees, also shows about 18.4 per cent of his followers are fake profiles.

Research into fake followers was undertaken by Climbing Trees using the Sparktoro Fake Follower Audit tool.

The report details activity on Twitter and highlights the MPs with the largest following.

Topping the charts is MP for Witham, Priti Patel, who has 51,463 followers.

At the bottom of the pack with just 1,231 followers is MP for Southend West, David Amess.

Will Quince MP has built up 11,636 followers since he launched his Twitter feed in February 2009.

The MP with the most fake followers was MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, with 27.1 per cent of all his followers believed to be fake.

The survey revealed the MPs with the most tweets - in first place with 48,267 tweets was Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, and the MP with the least tweets was MP for Maldon, John Whittingdale, with just 159 tweets.

Will Quince had tweeted 30,030 times.

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

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

We contacted Mr Quince for a comment. 

He said: "I think it's important to be as approachable as possible and people are finding more ways to get in touch now, with one of those being social media. 

"I also do weekly video updates on Facebook. It's just showing people you are open and transparent.

"With regards to the fake followers I do get plenty of grief and some abuse. 

"There are many good things about social media but there are also bad things, like anonymous accounts thinking it's acceptable to abuse you. 

"But overwhelmingly social media is a cause for good." 

Alex Holliman, managing director at Climbing Trees, said: "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 direct to get their voice heard."

To view the full research findings, and to see how your local MP faired in the research, visit www.climbingtrees.com.