No 10 turns to influencers to reach audiences beyond mainstream media

Next time you’re scrolling on TikTok or Instagram and that fitness guru or “mumfluencer” you follow pops up, they might be joined by an unexpected guest. As part of a UK government strategy to reach voters on social media – where more than half of people now get their news – ministers including Keir Starmer are making appearances on some of the most popular channels. Last week, the science communicator Simon Clark broadcast his FaceTime call with Starmer at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil to his 73,000 followers. The campaigner Anna Whitehouse – who goes by Mother Pukka – posted clips of her conversation with Bridget Phillipson about the inadequacies of the English childcare system to 444,000 followers in July. And earlier this month, two personal finance influencers, Cameron Smith and Abi Foster, were given front-row seats at Rachel Reeves’s press conference where she warned voters about forthcoming tax rises. Downing Street views the influencer ecosystem as a useful way to reach audiences who rarely engage with the traditional media. But to critics, the model is a way of avoiding serious scrutiny of controversial policy in favour of softball questions from interviewers with little grasp of the crunchy technical details. A government source said over the past year, working with content creators had become “part and parcel” of government comms. “Content creators have highly trusted audiences and they talk about issues that those audiences really, really care about,” they said. “There’s rarely a visit that the PM goes on that content creators aren’t invited to now … We really want to scale this up. The press conference that Rachel did last week where there were creators in the front row – that was the first, but we don’t want that to be the exception.” A government spokesperson added that “talking to people who don’t get their news from traditional outlets … is crucial as we rebuild trust”. The strategy is led by Caitlin Roper, Starmer’s director of digital communications, and the New Media Unit (NMU) she runs in the Cabinet Office that employs about 20 people. At the NMU’s instigation, earlier this year government departments contacted the top influencers in their area and invited them to a “creators’ breakfast” in Downing Street. It was the first of a series of events, with a reception for about 80 influencers – with a quarter of a billion followers between them – held in No 10 over the summer. Alexander Dragonetti, a former diplomat who was a popular contestant on The Traitors earlier this year, was among them. He later got access to Starmer after his September meeting with Donald Trump for a gentle interview about the nature of the two men’s relationship. After attending the Reeves press conference this month, both Smith and Foster have argued that inviting social media creators to cover press events is not enough – politicians need to learn to engage with them in a different way. “I’ve definitely tried to make clear that they shouldn’t treat us like journalists,” Smith said. “I’ll take Rachel Reeves as an example – she’s a very, very normal person. But as soon as the cameras are running and you ask her a question about anything political or economic, the screen comes up; the face changes. You’re treated as if you’re a journalist trying to catch them out.” Gordon McKee, the Labour MP for Glasgow South, who employs a digital content creator to shape his online output including on TikTok, said: “It would be a mistake to treat social media the way you treat an evening news bulletin. You’re competing with videos of cats, not whatever’s on BBC Two.” Some lobby journalists, who under an 150-year-old system are given access to government briefings and the parliamentary estate, are sceptical of the value of content creators questioning politicians and believe a more combative style is essential. “Influencers will soon learn that the fluff ministers hope to disseminate through their channels contains little of interest or use to their followers,” one lobby journalist said. “Real reporters understand that what politicians refuse to tell us is often more revealing. So we ask uncomfortable questions. Not getting proper answers might seem nonsensical on the face of it. But listening to politicians waffle in their comfort zones is far worse.” One thing that influencers are witnessing is the online backlash that comes with platforming politicians who are part of a highly unpopular government. “There’s a lot of mixed feelings amongst my audience,” Smith said. “Some people think it’s really forward-thinking to be getting people like me into the room … On the other hand, there’s people that might perceive me as being almost like a mouthpiece for the government, somebody who’s being manipulated.” Jim Waterson, a former Guardian media correspondent who runs the online outlet London Centric, said: “I was talking to someone this week who runs an Instagram account that reaches tens of millions of young people – and he said he went out of his way to avoid any news and turns down requests from politicians, because his audience would react negatively. “If you’re in government comms you’ve got to try something different. But the version that will ultimately succeed will probably be far more radical than just inviting an influencer into a lobby briefing – it’ll involve an internet-native politician who instinctively understands what’s going on.”