Sky News Reveals 2011 Politicos Top Trumps

Monday, 19 September 2011 14:19

Written by Newsdesk

Sky News reveals its 2011 Politicos Top Trumps, the must-have party conference accessory.

This year it is all about the New Generation, familiar faces who have haunted the pack for some time have been banished, making way for the fresh-faced new kids on the block who dominate the deck.

Categories include twitter followers*, debates attended in session*, career potential, gaffability and everyone’s favourite – fanciability.

Tweeting has been taken up by the majority of MPs with Ed Miliband leading with nearly 80,000 followers. Snapping at his heels is Deputy PM, Nick Clegg on 63,716 and Ed’s older brother David on 58,988. The Tories are less inclined to tweet with eight of their MPs in the pack following the Prime Minister’s declaration that ‘too many tweets makes a . . .’ by not tweeting at all.

Nick Clegg leads in the gaffability stakes after a wobbly year u-turning on tuition fees and a painful rejection of AV in the May referendum. He scored full marks with 20/20. Following him closely is Danny Alexander on 18/20 and Ed Miliband, Rory Stewart and Ed Vaizey all on 16/20.

Luciana Berger is the biggest swot, leading the field by attending 98 debates in session*, leaving Jeremy Hunt on 8 sessions looking like a serial truant.

Career Potential sees David Cameron as Prime Minister on a firm 10/10. According to our esteemed judges the Tories in the pack also making their mark are George Osborne and Matthew Hancock both on 9/10. Ed Miliband should be concerned that on 7/10 the Sky News Top Trump panel believed that Ed Balls, Rachel Reeves and David Miliband all on 8/10 look to have a stronger future than him in the Labour party. His Top Trump nemesis though is Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, who is seemingly the runaway talent in the Labour party with 9/10.

It is an MP who makes his Top Trumps debut who stole the hearts of our wider judging panel. Labour Backbencher and ex-Para Dan Jarvis stormed to the top with a whopping 96% in the fanciability poll. David Cameron (81%), Dominic Raab (91%), David Miliband (84%) and Chuka Umunna (90%) all get pulses racing too. The ladies all score well with the raven haired Luciana Berger stealing the show on 90%. Other beauties scoring highly are Priti Patel (74%), Louise Mensch (76%), Penny Mordaunt (75%), Charlotte Leslie (83%) and Gloria De Piero (72%).

Adam Boulton, Sky News Political Editor, commented: ‘As ever this was a tough decision process, especially because we’ve aimed to look ahead to the new generation of MPs making their mark on the political landscape. It’s been a difficult year for some of our most senior politicians, and many who last year were seen as Top Trumps institutions, have failed to make the grade.’

The Sky News Politicos Top Trumps 2011 was put together by a panel of leading political journalists. Joining Adam Boulton on the judging panel were Anushka Asthana, The Times, Andrew Pierce, The Daily Mail, Andrew Porter, The Telegraph, James Forsyth, The Spectator, Tom Newton Dunn, The Sun and Joey Jones, Katie Snape and Sophy Ridge of Sky News.