Badgers, trees and PR: The stories that dominated the 2024 General Election

The Badger Trust’s election guide to badger culling was one of the most shared social media articles of the general election campaign.  

With over 8000 shares, likes and comments on Facebook, the Badger Trust’s endorsement of manifestos opposed to culling was the seventh best performing articles on social media with “general election” in the title. 

Using the platform Buzzsumo, The London Economic has compiled a list of the top 20 best performing articles on social media with “general election” in the headline, from when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the general election on 22 May until polling day on 4 July. In sixth place was Jeremy Corbyn’s pitch in the Islington Tribune to be re-elected for the eleventh time, in which he told voters that the local community had been “disempowered” by the Labour Party’s decision to prohibit him from standing as a Labour candidate. The article received over 6000 engagements on Facebook and close to 3000 shares on X.

In Corbyn’s constituency of Islington North, a local row about the axing of trees in favour of a redeveloped cricket pavilion also landed amongst the most engaging social media articles of the election cycle. Both Corbyn and his Labour opponent Praful Nargund, whom the former Labour leader defeated by over 7000 votes, expressed concerns about the development at Wray Crescent in Islington.

Wes Streeting’s neck-to-neck fight to win his Ilford North constituency against a pro-Gaza independent candidate picked up significant traction on X. The Evening Standard’s breakdown of the contest, which the current Health Secretary won by just over 500 votes, was shared more than 5000 times.

It was not just The Badger Trust’s manifesto guide that performed well on social media; the policy proposals of both the Labour and Green parties were shared widely online. With over 11,500 total likes, shares and comments on Facebook alone, Labour’s webpage outlining Keir Starmer’s plan to “change Britain” had the fourth most engagement of all articles with general election in the headline, whereas the Green Party’s manifesto came ninith with thousands of shares on X.

By far the most popular subject for online audiences during the general election concerned the results themselves. The BBC’s live coverage of polling day and the ensuing Labour landslide took three of the top four spots on the list, reaching a combined 52100 engagements across all social media platforms. Even before July 4, voters wanted to know who would be walking into Number 10. YouGov’s first MRP showing an overwhelming Labour victory and The Mirror’s coverage of another poll that put the Conservatives in third place were both in the top 20 webpages that were seen most widely on social media.

With the popularity of smaller parties such as Reform and The Green Party, the general election result was one of the most disproportionate in history. Proponents of installing a fairer proportional representation system for 2029 were already making an effective push to win over online audiences to their cause. The Make Votes Matter campaign published an article proclaiming that “this should be the last general election under First Past the Post” which received over 5000 engagements on Facebook alone.

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