ANGUS MacNeil is hands down the most prolific tweeter about independence compared to other SNP politicians, we can reveal.
MacNeil, MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, topped the Sunday National’s analysis of how frequently MPs and MSPs were tweeting about independence before and after the Holyrood election.
READ MORE: Massive fall in SNP tweets about independence after election
In the 12-week period we analysed, the 51-year-old fired out 150 tweets which mentioned independence, a referendum or indyref2.
And he’s pretty even on either side of election day, with 70 tweets sent before May 6 and 80 after.
MacNeil mentioned independence 88 times, a referendum 45 times and indyref2 25 times.
READ MORE: Tweets from SNP politicians on independence and indyref2 in graphs
Next in line for most productive pro-indy tweeter is Pete Wishart, who sent out 101 tweets over our time period.
The Perth and North Perthshire MP sent 80 before the end of the campaign trail, but only 21 afterwards.
John Nicolson was the third most prolific tweeter with 73, 50 before the election and 23 after.
It starts to drop as we go to number four, Stewart M McDonald, who sent 51 tweets. A number of these were related to a webinar on defence, security and independence which took place on June 7. And, Gavin Newlands, who is a particular fan of the hashtag indyref2, took up the fifth spot due to a lot of time spent on the campaign trail with George Adam, Natalie Don and others. Of his 37 tweets, there were 33 mentions of indyref2.
Newlands sent 31 tweets about independence or a referendum before the election, and six after.
The next five top tweeters about indyref were Emma Roddick MSP (top) with 23, Chris Law MP (middle) with 22, Jenny Gilruth MSP (bottom) also at 22, Elena Whitham MSP on 18 and Neil Gray MSP at 16.
And what about the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, whose portfolio responsibility is for independence.
Robertson tweeted 10 times about independence before the election, and four afterwards.
And the other Cabinet secretaries?
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville both sent five tweets out regarding independence before the election, and none afterwards.
Justice Secretary Keith Brown put out four pro-indy tweets, three before the election and one after. Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison put out two tweets before the election and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes tweeted once before.
Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney and Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson both tweeted once about independence after the election.
While an analysis of Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon’s timeline found no tweets which mentioned independence or a referendum.
There were also 19 other MSPs who didn’t tweet about independence, a referendum or indyref2 during the time period stated.
These include George Adam, Clare Adamson, Alasdair Allan, Colin Beattie, Willie Coffey, Graeme Dey, Natalie Don, James Dornan, Jackie Dunbar, Joe FitzPatrick, Kenneth Gibson (who doesn’t have a Twitter account), Christine Grahame, Emma Harper, Clare Haughey, Fulton MacGregor, Mairi McAllan, Ivan McKee, Marie McNair and Collette Stevenson.
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