Britain First Has Quietly Become The Most Popular UK Political Party On Facebook

    The far-right party's social media operation is getting seriously powerful. Whether that actually changes anything is a different matter.

    Britain First's Facebook page now reaches millions of people a week, giving it a bigger audience than some national newspapers.

    This is how many Facebook likes UK political parties have.

    In total there have been almost 3.3 million interactions with the page in the last week. And each of those interactions prompts a story in a user's newsfeed, broadcasting the party's name even further.

    And Britain First is continuing to add around 8,000 followers a day.

    Why has this happened? Well, Britain First is very, very good at creating a certain sort of viral content.

    Britain First could give the other parties a lesson in political messaging on Facebook: they have a clarity of message, use simple designs and rely emotive content.

    As for what they're actually preaching, well that's another matter. But analysis of the recent posts suggests fans of Britain First are five times more likely to engage with Britain First on Facebook than fans of more mainstream political parties.

    Whether this online support translates into actual votes is a different matter.

    The party has already been chastised for registering "REMEMBER LEE RIGBY", a reference to the English soldier murdered by Islamic extremists, as an official party slogan, against the wishes of Rigby's family.

    Still, it does confirm one thing: the best way to get your PayPal party donation address out to the masses is to post a picture of Princess Diana and beg for likes.