UK minister's X account hacked to promote fake cryptocurrency

UK Government minister Lucy Powell’s official X account has been hacked and used to promote a fake “House of Commons” cryptocurrency.

The leader of the House of Commons’ account posted a tweet – now deleted – to promote a digital coin described as “$HCC”.

The post claimed it was "a community-driven digital currency bringing people's power to the blockchain”.

The tweet, which featured the House of Commons Logo, continued: “Transparency. Participation. Trust”.

Powell’s feed was later filled with a string of posts – all of which have now been deleted – that provided contact details and confirmed the coin was live.

It has yet not been revealed who was behind the hack.  

A House of Commons spokesperson said: “UK Parliament takes cyber security extremely seriously. We provide advice to users – including members – to make them aware of the risks and how to manage their digital safety, however we do not comment on specific details of our cyber security policies”.

This is the latest of a string of social media hacks targeting high-profile figures. In January, BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg's X account was hacked to promote a fake BBC cryptocurrency. And a month later her colleague Nick Robinson, who co-presents Radio 4's Today programme, had his X account hacked, with the impersonator tweeting Robinson was launching a cryptocurrency called "$Today".

Holyrood has contacted Lucy Powell and X for comment.