British PM attracts 100,000 Twitter followers in four days

The Prime Minister ignored his own advice about the perils of Twitter and signed up to the micro-blogging site on Saturday night, promising more 'edgy' political output.

Four days later @David_Cameron has attracted more than 100,000 followers, been bombarded with abuse and posted the obligatory photo of food, the Daily Mail reported.

Before the account was set up aides promised it would be an "edgy" and "more political" outlet for the Prime Minister to target voters.

The official Downing Street accounts is covered by Civil Service rules on impartiality and cannot be used for party political purposes.

To date it has been rather more sedate, consisting of posts praising speeches by colleagues, alerting people to imminent TV appearances and photos of charity work.

The response has been rather more boisterous than the Prime Minister's own tweets, with users posting a stream of abuse often aimed at Cameron's wealth.

Cameron defended his decision to join the site this week.

"In this modern world you have got to use every means to try and communicate your message and explain to people why you are doing it. You've got to get with the programme, I suppose," he was quoted by Sky News as saying.

Before the account was set up, sources close to Cameron said they wanted to use it as a political tool to reach voters directly.

"He wants something that's able to be more political," a party source said.

"Especially when it comes down to the local, European and general elections he needs something where he can connect more directly with the voters as leader of the Conservative party," the source added.

Cameron was the 370th Member of Parliament to start an account.

So far Cameron has not interacted with any voters, or even the 34 Tory MPs and peers he is following.

The most exciting post has been a picture of Cameron's birthday cake. The Prime Minister was presented with a caterpillar birthday cake by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Chief of Staff Ed Llewellyn.

He passed that landmark of 100,000 followers early yesterday, later posting: "I'm told some bookmakers are regretting laying odds against this account passing 100,000 followers during conference."