Essex MP’s with the largest number of ‘fake followers' and those who engage the most with their followers on social media have been revealed.

The research conducted by leading search and social agency, Climbing Trees, revealed who are the most online savvy users on Twitter in the county.

The district’s MP, Eleanor Laing, is the 15th most popular in Essex-based member of parliament with 1,698 followers since she launching her Twitter feed in February 2015.

Topping the charts is MP for Witham, Priti Patel, has 51,463 followers whilst leading the bottom of the pack is MP for Southend West, David Amess with just 1,231 followers.

Alex Holliman, managing director of Climbing Trees, believes it's vital to see how MP’s communicate with constituents online.

He 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.

He continued: "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."

MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, came top in two categories of the report obtaining the most fake followers and publishing the most tweets.

Mr Halfron has uploaded 48,267 tweets at the time of the survey and 27.1% of his followers are believed to be false accounts.

In comparison, Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing had a respectable 77% engagement score with 12.4% of her followers to be not real and had tweeted 386 times.

The highest engagement score went to MP for Colchester, Will Quince, (87%) and the lowest is MP for Castle Point, Rebecca Harris, who only scored 14% for engagement.

To view the full research findings visit climbingtrees.com.