A Hampshire MP has said a social media hack led to a photograph of a topless man being reposted by his account.

New Forest West MP Sir Desmond Swayne said he was “disgusted” after his X account shared an image from another user on Wednesday, January 21, before it was subsequently unshared.

In a post that afternoon, the Conservative politician’s verified account said: “Unfortunately, my X account got hacked earlier and the hackers decided to repost something very bizarre.

“Needless to say I was disgusted by what they reposted and passwords were changed immediately.

“Thank you everyone who highlighted this so rapidly.”

Sir Desmond told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he never looks at his social media, adding that he has a member of staff who operates his X account.

Sir Desmond said: “All of a sudden I got a message from him saying that there was a naked man.

“Mercifully it turned out to be only half naked but just completely random, so we consulted the House security people and they said ‘well, the best thing you do is change your password immediately’, so that’s what we did.

“It is completely random. The offending picture doesn’t appear to have sort of any agenda attached to it or anything.

“It was just sort of random but there it is.

“I can say quite happily say that it wasn’t me gov because I never touch it.”

The MP’s post on X referencing that he was hacked has attracted more than 230,000 views and 438 replies.

New Forest Liberal Democrat councillor Jack Davies said some of the people replying on social media were acting as if it was the biggest scandal since John Profumo’s affair in the 1960s.

He said he did not care about the MP’s explanation of being hacked.

Cllr Davies, who has contested the past two elections for the New Forest West parliamentary seat, said: “It’s 2026. If an MP is disgusted at the insinuation they might be gay or bisexual, then that worries me more.

“People should be free to live their lives as they see fit so long as they aren’t hurting anyone.”

Responding to Cllr Davies’s comments, Sir Desmond said: “Do you know what my attitude to social media is?

“I am on send only. I never read anything that anyone writes back and that’s why I remain sane, where other colleagues are often in a state of distress at the miserable things people have said to them.

“If you want to contact me and want my opinion on anything, you either write a letter or you send an email, but I am not responding to anything that anyone writes on social media because I won’t have read it.

“I don’t look at social media.”