As soon as the UK general election was held on May 22, a meme war began. Social media campaigns by both the Labour and Conservative parties saw hundreds of memes shared. Labour went viral with a TikTok that used British singer and TV presenter Cilla Black’s “Surprise! Surprise!” to mock the Conservatives’ 18-year-old national service plan. The Conservatives posted a TikTok video showing only a blank slide with the caption “Here’s all the Labour policies”. Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have also posted their own memes in the run-up to the election. Meanwhile, the two parties leading the polls have engaged in “trolling” on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X.
“Shitty uploads have gone mainstream,” says Jack Spriggs, a political strategist at Cavendish Consulting who specializes in TikTok’s political impact.
But reactions to the meme wars have ranged from amusement to disgust, especially among Gen Z voters. “It sparks conversation but it comes across as childish,” said Maya Hollick, a 20-year-old voter from London. “They’re making light of a very serious event.”
Labor launched a TikTok account as soon as the July 4 election date was announced, and has since gained more than 200,000 followers and posted hundreds of videos more than any other political party. Many of its posts have been viewed more than a million times, but its influence extends far beyond that. “TikTok’s most important power is not how long it stays on the platform, but how widely it spreads,” says Hannah O’Rourke, co-founder of the Campaign Lab, an organization that studies campaign innovation.
“Memes are a way for the Labour party to draw attention to their policies,” O’Rourke said, referring to Labour trending TikToker Cilla Black.
WIRED spoke to students at the University of Bristol, where I attend university and where Labour and the Greens, a party popular with young voters, are strong contenders. Some voters, like 20-year-old student Ed Sherwin, don’t think memes are helpful. “I don’t use TikTok much, but I saw that video,” he said of the Cilla Black meme. “But it didn’t make me go and look at the NHS policy. I did after seeing it on the news.” Sherwin called the meme “kind of pathetic and insensitive, given the state of the country.”
Charlie Sillett, a member of Extinction Rebellion Youth Bristol, the youth branch of climate-focused pressure group XR, said he personally thought the Labour memes were “seemingly embarrassing” and showed a “total lack of self-awareness”, while the Conservative memes were “a half-hearted attempt to appeal to a generation that deeply despises them”.
Others criticised the simplification of political issues in meme form. “The use of memes implies that young people need politics simplified – we’re smarter than they think we are,” says Grace Shropshire, 21. “Their marketing is quick, flashy and short.” Alisha Agarwal, a marketing student, says: “I like Labour but I don’t like the oversimplified way they market their campaign.”
