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Ukip's Douglas Carswell is the least trustworthy MP while Diane Abbott is most patronising, survey finds

Labour MP Stella Creasy was found to be the most approachable with 11 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men agreeing

Matt Payton
Wednesday 29 June 2016 08:18 EDT
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Douglas Carswell, Member of Parliament for Clapton
Douglas Carswell, Member of Parliament for Clapton (PA)

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Ukip's only MP, Douglas Carswell, is the least friendly and trustworthy in the House of Commons, a social media survey has found.

The newly appointed Shadow Health Secretary, Diane Abbott, was the most patronising, the same survey found.

Artios, an artificial intelligence company, 'blind tested' 1,000 UK adults with social media content from an equal cross section of political parties.

The highest rating for trustworthiness was only 14 per cent for a post by Prime Minister David Cameron. Lib Dem MP Greg Mudholland scored as the most friendly.

Labour MP Stella Creasy was found to be the most approachable with 11 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men agreeing.

On on on wider level, the survey found that left-wing politicians were considered more "friendly" than those on the right.

Andreas Voniatis, a data scientist and Managing Director of Artios, who conducted the research found that younger politicians were generally better received on social media than older ones

He said: “Our political views inevitably colour the way we see politicians, so we wanted to analyse people’s responses when they were shown blind social media posts in plain text, and couldn’t rely on their existing biases.

“One of our most interesting findings was how the platform used correlated with levels of trust and positivity.

"Posts shared on Facebook were received most positively, while tweets received the least positive responses."

The Independent has contacted Mr Carswell and Ms Abbot for comment.

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