Justice Secretary among group of MPs and public figures hacked on X

The Justice Secretary was among a number of public figures and institutions to have their X accounts hacked last night.

Shabana Mahmood's account on the social media network briefly showed a post declaring 'this is hacked account'.

It advertised a cryptocurrency token called $HACKED, along with a long code and the message: 'Buy now.'

At least two other Labour MPs also fell victim to the scam: a former aide to Sir Keir Starmer, Carolyn Harris, and party whip Chris Elmore.

The account of left-wing news website Evolve Politics was also affected, writing on the platform: 'So this account was also subject to the widespread Twitter hack tonight.'

It said its staff used 'the most secure method' of logging on and warned: 'No account might be safe!'

Evolve Politics speculated that 'an internal Twitter vulnerability or compromised Twitter employee' could be to blame and asked: 'What on earth has Elon Musk done to this platform!?'

However some cyber security commentators suggested the hackers had got in to the accounts via a third-party app used to schedule Twitter posts, to which users had authorised access.

Comedian Sooz Kempner also had her account hacked.

She wrote: 'I was just having a nice drink with a friend when my boyfriend called to tell me my account had just been hacked. I have changed my password, ha ha.'

The X accounts for the World Health Organisation at the European Union in Brussels, the Great British Menu and Lenovo India were also believed to have been hacked.