Two Lib Dem ministers made it into the top 10 of most-mentioned politicians in the national print media in 2011. Not surprisingly, one was Nick Clegg, the Deputy PM; the other was Chris Huhne, energy and climate change secretary.

Here’s the graphic which shows them placed 4th and 10th respectively:

Two Lib Dems also made it into the list of top 10 backbenchers who appeared in the national print media in 2011. Ming Campbell and David Laws popped up at 9th and 10th respectively (42nd and 43rd overall):

Here’s the full list of Lib Dem MPs who made it into the Top 100 most mentioned politicians of 2011:

1. (4) Nick Clegg — 7686 mentions
2. (8) Chris Huhne — 2281
3. (12) Vince Cable — 1209
4. (31) Danny Alexander — 611
5. (32) Simon Hughes — 550
6. (42) Ming Campbell — 392
7. (43) David Laws — 378
8. (56) Charles Kennedy — 296
9. (69) Mike Hancock — 212
10. (119) Julian Huppert — 61
11. (120) Alistair Carmichael — 60

Please: no fnar-fnar remarks about Mike Hancock’s numerical position. It would be beneath us.

The research was compiled by hanover. The number of ‘mentions’ was calculated using the Factiva database – w – search for the MP’s name that featured in UK national newspaper articles. The process covered the period from 1 January to 21 December 2011 and excluded coincidental mentions of people with the same name. You can view the Google docs data in full here.

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.