Keir Starmer launched his new TikTok account this week – but you’d be forgiven for having missed it. He might be Prime Minister, but a mere 27,000 people have followed his account to date.
That’s a number you might expect from a local councillor whose job is checking on the flowerpots – not the man commanding the sixth-largest economy in the world.
A new video he posted Wednesday – one of four so far – is typical. The PM is shown ambling through Downing Street with all the charisma of a junior accountant hunting for the printer.
There’s no sense of the office he holds or the significance of his surroundings. There’s scant ‘message’ to be discerned. In fact, no one seems to have any clue as to why Starmer has bothered to post the footage in the first place.
Things don’t have to be this way – even for politicians. I spent two years working with Nigel Farage on his TikTok account, growing the Reform leader’s following to a mighty 1.4 million. That’s more than every other Westminster MP combined.
What was clear to me then, and remains true now, is that people on social media demand a point of view. They want to hear what a politician has to say. They don’t want to watch him walking around greeting staffers like the office bore.
The most ‘liked’ comment on Starmer’s latest video will not have delighted his administration, which is widely accused of trampling on our historic freedom of speech. ‘I’m scared to comment in case I get put in prison,’ it says.
Another recent Starmer video shows President Zelensky of Ukraine walking up Downing Street and then hugging the PM. The most popular comment on this one: ‘Do we get taxed for watching this?’
He might be Prime Minister, but a mere 27,000 people have followed Keir Starmer’s account to date, writes Jack Anderton
‘The contrast with Farage could hardly be more stark. On-screen and off, as even his critics admit, he is charismatic and, yes, humorous – qualities that have always eluded our PM’
‘I spent two years working with Nigel Farage on his TikTok account, growing the Reform leader’s following from zero to a mighty 1.4 million, where it stands today. That’s more than every other Westminster MP combined’
As Starmer’s advisers should already know, all viral videos need to answer two simple questions: Why should people watch – and why should they care? Yet Starmer’s TikTok clips are cautious, insincere, palpably confected – and boring.
The contrast with Farage could hardly be more stark. On-screen and off, as even his critics admit, he is charismatic and, yes, humorous – qualities that have always eluded our PM.
More to the point, Farage has a message that resonates with the younger people who mostly populate TikTok. He is unequivocal that they are living in a country in serious decline while other politicians try to deny this obvious truth. He is determined to turn Britain around and build a better future.
Farage’s most-viewed clip (watched almost 20 million times) is a simple but punchy commentary on the fact that judges are delaying sentencing criminals, including rapists, because our jails are overcrowded. This video plainly told the truth as Farage saw it. It oozed conviction. It felt real.
Other popular TikToks from the Reform leader discuss, for example, the case of a Jamaican man who raped a woman but was not deported. ‘Isn’t it about time we started looking after our own people?’ asked Farage in a video seen by more than five million people.
The TikTok algorithm rewards honesty, sincerity and authenticity. Until Starmer finds these qualities, nobody will watch his.
When I began working with Farage in 2023, I took the view that we should let Nigel be Nigel. He knows what he is doing and what he wants to say.
My task was simple: I ensured that the videos we produced looked professional, were the ‘correct’ length to keep viewers engaged (between 30 and 60 seconds). I suggested sharp and emotive topics I thought had the biggest chance of attracting viewers and going viral.
That simple strategy of letting Nigel be Nigel all but guaranteed that his following would rocket. Today, he is more widely recognised by young Britons than any other politician, including the current occupant of Downing Street – and I’d argue that’s largely down to TikTok.
Thirty per cent of his followers on the platform are aged 24 or younger – while more than 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds now get their news from TikTok, according to a recent survey. Politicians from all sides accept that the platform is now key for reaching younger voters – indeed, the Daily Mail is the most followed news provider on the platform.
And it’s not just young people – nearly 40 per cent of the UK population, about 23 million, is expected to be on TikTok by the end of this year. Britain is now the fifth-largest country for TikTok in the world.
It’s striking that, unlike Starmer, others on the Left have managed to be quite successful there. Corbynista Zarah Sultana – co-founder of the hard-Left Your Party – boasts almost 500,000 followers. Her most popular video, featuring a speech about taxing billionaires, gained 2.8 million views. (An episode of Newsnight might be lucky to get half a million, mostly the over-60s.)
The centrist French President, Emmanuel Macron, has 6.5 million followers and a slick team behind him. So does his Right-wing rival, Jordan Bardella, from France’s National Rally – widely tipped to be the next French PM. He has 2.2 million followers. A simple video about his habit of eating sweets before he goes on stage won Bardella more than 10 million views.
‘The TikTok algorithm rewards honesty, sincerity and authenticity. Until Starmer finds these qualities, nobody will watch his’
Then there is Donald Trump. The president might be 79 but he has no problem reaching Gen Z. Today, he enjoys almost 16 million followers, with his most popular video pulling in a vast 181 million views.
The lesson for Starmer and his team is clear. They can tweak the lighting and use different camera angles. (Both are badly needed, by the way.) They can add subtitles and music. Yet none of that matters in the end.
The truth is that Starmer wants the profile but is too timid to project a message. He wants the reach without the risk.
He and his limp operation are trying so hard to play it safe that, when he speaks directly to the nation he affects to lead, he reveals he has nothing of substance to say. Starmer’s problem isn’t TikTok – it’s him.
Jack Anderton is a political consultant for Reform UK.
