A Labour MP has had to reassure his Twitter followers after his account was hacked and his profile picture replaced with an image of a woman in underwear.
Toby Perkins, the MP for Chesterfield, had his name changed to “Anne Nelson” and his account tweeted an image of a model in her underwear. The photo was captioned: “I love to show my body on here”.
The former Armed Service Shadow Minister told The Independent his social media account was compromised on Thursday morning but was restored half an hour later.
“I’m not entirely sure what happened but I just went on and deleted it. They hadn’t changed my password,” he explained.
“Several people noticed it but if you change your Twitter picture to a super model, it’s fairly obvious what’s happening, it’s not something you do by accident.”
"I guess there are bots who try your password thousands of time,” he added.
Mr Perkins also informed his Twitter followers of the hack. “Apologies for brief break in service, I believe my (temporarily hacked) Twitter account is now back in safe hands,” he wrote.
Perkins was Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet but resigned from this position on 27 June 2016.
Mr Corbyn’s Twitter account was also hacked back in January, with a series of foul-mouthed posts published from his account, including one mocking the former Prime Minister David Cameron by saying: “Davey Cameron is a pie”.
Increasing numbers of celebrities have been the victim of Twitter hacks in recent months. With Lana Del Ray, Katy Perry, Tenacious D and Drake all becoming the subject of hacks.
A representative for Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment.
