Poll: Labour is winning the social media battle in this general election

Anthony Devlin / Getty

Jeremy Corbyn campaigning in South Yorkshire.

More voters have seen Labour’s social media campaign messages than those of any other political party.
63% of voters are now on social media with growing numbers using it to find information about the election.
Labour has sought to bypass traditional news outlets in favour of alternative outlets.
Poll finds Labour has halved the Tory lead in the final weeks of the campaign.

LONDON — Labour is winning the social media battle of this general election, according to a new poll which shows the party’s online message is cutting through to voters.

Labour’s online campaign messages have been seen by 44% of all voters according to the Survation poll for Good Morning Britain, with the Conservatives four points behind on 40%.

The poll also found that Labour has halved the Conservatives lead in the final weeks of the campaign, with their support rising to 34%, nine points behind the Tories on 43%.

It is the second poll within days to find the gap between the parties dropping to single figures.

Of the following political parties have you seen party campaign messages on social media from…?

Labour: 44%
Conservative: 40%
Lib Dem: 23%
UKIP: 14%

Labour strategists have long sought to bypass traditional print media outlets in this election, focusing instead on broadcasters, supportive blogs, and social media.

Journalists from newspapers seen as critical of the party have been excluded from campaign trail in favour of more direct communication with supporters.

Today’s Survation poll found that most voters still predominantly get their information from national media, with 60% identifying mainstream outlets as their main source of information.

However, it also found that social media has now overtaken both traditional campaign literature and local newspapers as a source for election information.

14% of voters overall said they received most of their information about what parties are doing in this campaign from social media, compared to 7% from local media and just 6% from campaign leaflets and other forms of direct communication.

Labour voters were the most likely to rely on social media for their information, with one-in-five supporters of the party saying they now get most of their information about political parties in this way. By contrast just 10% of people planning to vote Conservative use social media as their main source of information.