Tories and Labour go to battle on TikTok

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The digital election battle is heating up. Just a few days ago the Labour party joined TikTok, the social media app. Today the Conservatives have followed suit. The Tories have launched on the app this Sunday with a post from Rishi Sunak heralding his new election policy: mandatory national service.

In the first video on the app, Sunak said:

‘Hi TikTok, sorry to be breaking into your politics-free feed – but I’m making a big announcement today and I’m told that a lot of you already have some views on it. So, first thing, no – I’m not sending everyone to go and join the army. What I am doing is proposing a bold new model of national service for 18-year-olds’.

Now given the polling suggests many younger people won’t be fans of the policy, it’s an interesting choice to launch the account now. Yet figures at CCHQ were keen to point out on Sunday that this video had gained more views than all of Labour’s 20 TikTok videos combined. The Tories’ first video has over one million views alone. However, Labour’s videos making fun of the policy are also doing well and have since overtaken – with one likening Sunak to Lord Farquaad from Shrek reaching 1.6m views. The Conservatives are on over 10,000 followers whereas Labour are on 29,000. However, it is worth pointing out that the UK party miles ahead of both is Reform, on 112,000 followers.

In this election, the digital battlefield will be more important than in any previous national vote, with the number of people watching television falling and direct mail being viewed as costly for the parties. Social media is viewed as a key way to reach both young and disaffected voters. It’s notable that Labour has expanded its digital operation in the last year to be more agile and more targeted.

But both Starmer and Sunak will face a similar challenge. Some of the politicians who do best on the platform – which is one of the most popular sources of news in the UK – are strident, dynamic and straight-talking. Take the right-wing populist Javier Milei who used TikTok for his successful campaign for the Argentinian presidency. In last year’s New Zealand election, the more straight down the line Chris Luxon, the National leader, used the platform well – but he was running as the ‘change’ candidate. Still, there is a clear electoral prize for whichever leader can make the platform work to their advantage.