Slough MP gives over £14,000 to Comic Relief after ‘naive’ Twitter message
Fiona MacTaggart, Labour MP for Slough, has donated £14,268 to Comic Relief after telling her followers she would give £1 to the charity for every retweet.
The MP posted the pledge at 20:25 GMT on Friday night, as the BBC Comic Relief marathon got underway, giving people a retweet deadline of 21:00.
She said: "I knew it would be a lot but it was more than I expected. I had expected to give around £10,000 but there you go, it was a risk I took".
She then thanked the 14,268 retweeters for "being so generous for me" and posted that she had "no regrets" despite being "Twitter naive".
MacTaggard said: "Someone from Australia retweeted it and said she gave 30 Australian dollars so that's rather wonderful".
She added: "The thing about Comic Relief is about being quirky about giving.
"The first time I did any support for Comic Relief I was a teacher and I taught for a day dressed up as a chicken."
However, some were quick to criticise that she would “probably claim it back on expenses anyway”. To which she responded: "So sad so many people said this. I won't."
But she added she would not be posting any more Twitter donation pledges.