Almost immediately after the UK general election was called on 22 May, the meme war began. Social media campaigns for both the Labour and Conservative parties shared hundreds of memes, from Labour’s viral TikTok featuring English singer and TV presenter “Surprise! Surprise!” by Cilla Black to mock the Conservative Party’s plans for compulsory national service at age 18, To the conservatives TikTok video showing only blank slides titled “Here are all the Labour Party policies.” Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have all contributed their own share of memes in the run-up; meanwhile, the two poll-leading parties have been engaged in back-and-forth trolling on platforms including TikTok, Instagram and X.
“Shitposters have gone mainstream,” says political strategist Jack Spriggs of Cavendish Consulting, who specializes in TikTok’s influence on politics.
But reactions to the meme war have been mixed, particularly among the Gen Z electorate, ranging from amusement to disgust. “While it invites conversation, it reads as infantilising,” says Maya Hollick, a 20-year-old voter from London. “They are trivialising a very serious event.”
The Labour Party launched its TikTok account as soon as the July 4 election date was announced and has since amassed more than 200,000 followers, with hundreds more videos than any other party. Many of its posts have more than a million views, but its reach is even greater. “The most important power of TikTok is not how long it stays on the platform, but how far it travels,” says Hannah O’Rourke, co-founder of Campaign Lab, an organisation that researches campaign innovation.
“A meme is the Labour Party’s way of getting people interested in the party’s politics,” says O’Rourke, referring to the viral Labour Party meme. Cilla Black TikTok.
WIRED spoke to students at the University of Bristol, a constituency where Labour and the Green Party, which also appeals to young voters, are front-runners (it’s also the university where this writer studies). Some voters like Ed Sherwin, a 20-year-old student, say they don’t find the memes helpful: “I don’t really use TikTok, but I did watch the video,” he says, referencing the Cilla Black meme. “It didn’t make me go and look at the national service policies, though. I did when I saw it on the news.” Sherwin called the memes “kind of pathetic and insensitive considering the state of the country.”
Charlie Siret, a member of Extinction Rebellion Youth Bristol, a youth branch of climate-focused pressure group XR, says he personally thinks the Labour Party memes “are transparently embarrassing” and “show a complete lack of self-awareness”, while the Tory memes are “a half-hearted attempt to appeal to a generation that largely despises them”.
Some also criticised the meme format’s oversimplification of political issues. “The use of memes suggests that young people need a simplified version of politics – we are smarter than they think we are,” says Grace Shropshire, 21. “Their marketing is fast, loud and short.” Marketing student Alisha Agarwal says she “likes the Labour Party, but not the simplified way they are promoting their campaign.”
