Labour's "Twitter tsar" was swamped with hundreds of irreverent messages on the social media site yesterday after comedian Ross Noble launched a campaign which saw her bombarded with questions.
Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, was made the government's new media campaigns spokeswoman in August, and was named the most influential MP on Twitter earlier this year. McCarthy who has more than 4,000 followers on the site, has declared that next year's election will be the first "new media election".
Yesterday she was given a taste of what her colleagues can expect when Noble, who has almost 30,000 followers, cajoled Twitter users into messaging McCarthy, who tweets under @KerryMP.
Noble, or @realrossnoble, launched "Twitterbombard Tuesday" last week, encouraging people to target Doritos and Nutri-Grain. He reiterated the rules yesterday. "We bombard daft questions to one tweeter then enjoy the confused replies," he wrote, adding: "Be nice."
Questions ranging from the serious: "If the government wants to save money and the planet, why don't they switch off some of the numerous unnecessary streetlights?" to the less serious: "Can you tame a crow?"
McCarthy appeared initially confused by the queries, asking: "Am I taking part in an 'ask Kerry silly questions contest', and no-one's told me?" but soon discovered Noble's campaign, and answered more than 100 questions in six hours.
"I thought a lot of the questions were really funny and I tried to respond to them in the spirit in which they were intended," she said. Asked if she would wear a gorilla suit to parliament, she replied: "I don't think it's expressly forbidden, I could give it a try," and challenged to start a Mexican wave in the Commons chamber, she replied: "We do it on the Labour benches when Nick Clegg is speaking. You just don't see it happening."
"I think the people who sent the messages didn't have a clue who I was, and I'm not sure Ross Noble did either," McCarthy said. "I'm sure they expected a humourless response, because that's the perception a lot of people have of politicians."
Noble has already set the target for next week's Twitterbombard: David Cameron. However the Conservative party leader does not currently use Twitter, having infamously declared "too many twits might make a twat" in an interview on Absolute radio this July.
