Much has been made of which politicians dominate social media. A sizeable following on platforms such as X, Facebook and TikTok can have a significant impact on polling and, ultimately, at the ballot box. Nowhere has this become starker than in the Makerfield by-election.
Largely thanks to his sizeable social media following, Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain is now commanding 7 per cent support in the constituency, according to Survation. The rise of Restore locally could well split the right-wing vote and pave the way for Andy Burnham to return to the Commons, and then Downing Street. Restore’s growing brand recognition has been driven predominantly by social media.
But when it comes to the big tech platforms, who really rules the roost? Mr S has been crunching the numbers as of early this afternoon, though they are likely to fluctuate rapidly.
Nigel Farage has the largest total social media following, with 7,417,639 followers across X, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Farage’s strongest platforms are X with 2,292,523 followers and Facebook with 2,197,836, giving him a broad lead overall.
Sir Keir Starmer has the second largest total, 4,152,131, and performs especially strongly on X, where he has the highest single-platform figure at 2,313,122. Rupert Lowe’s overall figure is 2,626,623, helped mainly by a very strong Facebook following of 1,287,933, which is the largest Facebook figure of all leaders.
Zack Polanski performs best on Instagram, where he has 706,493 followers, more than any other leader. Kemi Badenoch’s strongest platform is Facebook with 502,917 followers, while Sir Ed Davey has the smallest total overall at 470,965, with his best performance also coming on Facebook at 206,416.
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