Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has Twitter account hacked

Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has had his Twitter account hacked.

Mr Heaton-Harris, who is MP for Daventry, had a spate of tweets posted on his account which included swear words and a racial slur suggesting account security had been compromised.

It comes just over a week after Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's account fell victim to hackers.

The MP for Daventry deleted the tweets and wrote on his account: "My Twitter account was hacked this morning, messages not posted by me have been deleted."

However, the tweet disappeared shortly afterwards and his account posted a string of further tweets, which suggested security had once again been compromised.

Eventually, the Northern Ireland Secretary appeared to get hold of his account, as the posts were deleted and he apologised in a new tweet.

He said: "I'm afraid my Twitter account was hacked overnight and someone posted some deeply unpleasant stuff on my account for which I can only apologise."


Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.