‘Sorry to be breaking into your usual politics-free feed,’ chirrups Rishi Sunak in his first-ever TikTok video. He is awkward, understandably. TikTok is enemy territory for the Tories. What most users learn about the Conservatives is usually damning, from left and right.
‘I think the Tory party deserves to die,’ says Jess Gill, who with 1.2 million ‘likes’ has a larger TikTok following than the party she wants dead. ‘They’ve betrayed Britain. On all fronts, but particularly immigration. We have an extremist immigration policy that is ruining this country.’ She is from Bolton and commutes from Reading to King’s College London on the two days she has to go in to study. Her videos denounce those who ‘simp for’ (or ‘defer to’) the Tories.
The old adage is you win elections by seizing the centre ground. That’s not how you win TikTok
Such videos rarely last as long as a minute, but Ofcom says TikTok is now a far greater news provider than any newspaper. At the last general election, TikTok didn’t even appear in surveys about news sources. Now almost a third of young people use the platform to get news, as do 10 per cent of Britons. It’s designed to be addictive and it succeeds. For its users, TikTok has replaced television. Surveys suggest that the average young user watches its videos for about an hour a day.
The Tories and Labour have long hesitated to join but now both parties have TikTok accounts. Sunak struggles with the medium and the message. His debut 50-second video was about his plans to conscript teenagers, claiming that they could ‘choose’ the military. That isn’t true. They can apply, but it’s the military that will pick the most able 5 per cent. Most will end up doing community service – which TikTokers have been quick to point out.
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