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Social media puts insurgent parties in the fast lane


When Change UK, the new centrist party formed by disgruntled pro-EU MPs, unveiled its candidates for forthcoming European Parliament elections, three individuals on stage were already well known to those who have followed the ups and downs of Brexit on social media.

Gavin Esler, the former BBC presenter, has recast his reputation since leaving the broadcaster through thousands of provocative tweets to his 60,000 followers criticising Brexit, Brexiters and the strategy of Theresa May’s government.

Another Change UK candidate with an online reputation as an ardent anti-Brexiter is Jessica Simor, a barrister at Matrix Chambers. Journalist Rachel Johnson, sister of Brexit-supporting Boris Johnson, also has a substantial network on Twitter and Instagram.

For the UK’s upstart political forces, selecting candidates with ready-made support alleviates the pressure of establishing themselves as fully-fledged parties ahead of the May 23 poll. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram offer a swift and cost-effective alternative to membership databases or regional structures. 

“From the Front National to Syriza to Five Star, all insurgents see the internet as this brilliant new way to get straight to ‘the people’, a direct line that cuts out the establishment,” said Jamie Bartlett, author and a senior fellow at the Demos think-tank. “They’re also usually better online because they’re natural outsiders and more practised at it.”

In the European elections, political social media “celebrities” have built their presence under hashtags that attract like-minded followers devoted to engaging in the Brexit debate. Pro-EU campaigners gravitate to #FBPE (follow back, pro European). Their opponents have gathered around #StandUp4Brexit.

For Change UK, formerly known as the Independent Group, social media has been crucial to turning itself into a fully formed party. Applications to be an MEP were advertised and conducted through multiple social media channels, which resulted in 3,700 entries for 70 places. 

“Social media has been crucial for building the party and rapidly getting us up to speed. This isn’t going to be won on leaflets through the letter boxes. It’ll be images on iPhones,” said a Change UK insider.

While Mr Esler, Ms Simor and Ms Johnson passed the interview process, others were less successful. They include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who has close to 3m followers on Twitter and an international reputation thanks to his books. He was turned down. 

“Some people who have very high scores on social media can have the tendency to be marmite — and in some cases through the interview process we concluded that could be distracting,” said a Change UK member.

The same was true for younger candidates, who were deemed to have “their whole lives online”, leaving the party to conclude that “there are things in the past that could be tricky”.

The pro-Leave Brexit party has also selected candidates with significant online presence. They include Martin Daubney, the former editor of Loaded magazine who is now a broadcaster, and Lucy Harris, who has founded a nationwide network of social clubs for Brexit supporters.

“People like Martin reach into a different field that’s not politics at all. He will reach people who don’t normally have politics on their timeline,” said a Brexit party spokesperson. 

“We are choosing candidates because of who they are. They have achieved things and that’s why they have a following but it’s not been predicated on that.”

Social media has helped defray the costs of organising events for the party, which distributed 1,700 tickets for a recent rally in Birmingham solely through social media. This makes campaigning “much cheaper”, according to party insiders, who say there was no need to advertise through traditional channels. 

The Brexit party’s greatest online asset remains Nigel Farage, who not only has a substantial Twitter profile, but has more followers on Facebook than the Conservative party. He also has a pool of Twitter followers 10 times greater than his new party. All of his posts this week have promoted his new group.

The UK Independence party has also — controversially — selected candidates based on their online presence. Carl Benjamin, who is running as an MEP in the South West, has close to 1m subscribers on his YouTube channel under the sobriquet Sargon of Akkad. His channel has received 281m views.

Despite Mr Benjamin’s repeated use of inflammatory language, Ukip leader Gerard Batten defends his selection. “He can open access to us on social media to all kinds of people we want to reach out to.”





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