It’s an old adage in politics that it’s best not to repeat your opponent’s big new message at every available opportunity. But Labour is doing exactly that with Theresa May’s claim at Conservative party conference that “austerity is over”. A deliberate campaign by Labour to weaponise May’s words on austerity against her, spearheaded by Jeremy Corbyn, has been shared millions of times online.
Analysis by BuzzFeed News found that Labour social media videos directly targeted at May’s austerity announcement had 7.5 million views in a month. It has become the main focus of the party’s social media activity, comfortably outperforming posts on other topics like Brexit.
At the beginning of October, Labour already had plenty of evidence that attacking the Tories on austerity was popular online.
A video posted on Corbyn’s social media channels on Oct. 1 told how “For nearly a decade Tory austerity has failed Britain and public sector workers still haven’t had a proper pay rise.” It had 1.7 million views on Facebook and another 1.1 million on Twitter.
Two days later, on Oct. 3, May declared the end of austerity. In her conference speech, the prime minister said: “A decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off.”
May’s speech was lauded by journalists and commentators at the time, and the “end of austerity” message made the front page of the next day’s newspapers.
Labour aides were initially in two minds about how to respond. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell immediately fired off a press release insisting: “Theresa May's claim that austerity is over is a con.” But there was little in the way of social media activity in the first few days after May’s pronouncement.
Then, the Labour leadership made a judgment call. In their view, Downing Street’s decision to put the so-called end of austerity at the forefront of the government’s message was a major strategic mistake. Labour advisers decided that for many voters across the UK, austerity does not feel over, and that by claiming otherwise the Tories had scored a significant own goal.
That Sunday, Oct. 7, McDonnell said in an interview with Sky News that “there is no end to austerity. Quite the reverse. What’s happening is austerity rolls on and people are really suffering,” referencing the rollout of universal credit and Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis that 75% of welfare cuts were still to come. The segment was clipped and posted on Facebook, where it quickly gained 144,000 views.
Then the campaign properly kicked into life. On Oct. 9, a video asking “Is austerity really over?” was launched on Labour’s social media channels. It had nearly 250,000 views on Facebook and Twitter. Another video about the impact of austerity on the justice system, posted on shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon’s social media profiles, amassed over 120,000 views. That same day, the party also launched a website called IsAusterityOver.co.uk.
The following day, Corbyn unusually used all six of his Prime Minister’s Questions to hammer home the same subject, asking if austerity was really over for mental health services, the police, teachers, councils, and disabled people. Clips of the exchanges posted on Corbyn’s social media channels quickly had nearly 300,000 views. Reposts of the “Is austerity really over?” video had another 100,000.
The following week, Labour’s social media accounts posted multiple new videos on the theme of how austerity is not over. A film on the “Reality of universal credit” had 714,000 views and 11,800 shares on Corbyn’s Facebook page, another 534,000 views on Labour’s Facebook page, and 124,000 views on Twitter. A video on police cuts had almost 350,000 views on Facebook and Twitter.
Encouraged by the numbers, Labour launched a new online poster campaign on Oct. 18 encouraging people to “read between the lies” on austerity.
Last week, in the run-up to the Budget, Labour’s austerity campaign went into overdrive, with new content published every day.
On Oct. 24, a video on how “They promised to end austerity” had nearly 200,000 views on Corbyn’s profiles. The following day, another new video launched titled “Theresa May claims that austerity is over. It's not”, earning 370,000 views on Facebook and Twitter. A video on “8 years of Tory austerity” on McDonnell’s accounts had 130,000 views.
On Oct. 26, an online attack advert titled “Let’s break down austerity, brick by brick” had 474,000 views and 4,700 shares on Facebook, and another 90,000 views on Twitter. The next day, a pre-Budget video posted on Corbyn’s account highlighting coming cuts had over half a million views.
Downing Street’s decision to claim an end to austerity, and the obvious glee with which Labour has jumped on it, is causing real concern in Tory circles. A Number 10 insider insisted to BuzzFeed News that the government was taking a balanced approach to the economy, triangulating between the previous Tory policy of spending cuts and what they see as Corbyn’s unlimited spending promises.
But former George Osborne adviser Rupert Harrison said the language of ending austerity “raises expectations that can’t be met”:
Sadly have to agree - the govt was groping its way towards a sensible strategy, eg Philip Hammond's "balanced approach", investing more in public services whilst still owning economic responsibility, but the 'end of austerity' language raises expectations that can't be met... https://t.co/QJzKP9U2Js
May's conference announcement made life difficult for the typically more frugal chancellor ahead of his Budget on Monday, the last before Brexit. An ally of Philip Hammond briefed the Sunday Times that he was furious with May for calling an end to austerity. “He knows that if we throw fiscal competence away to try to buy votes, a) it won’t work; and b) we will lose on the grounds of inconsistency,” they said.
The Corbynistas certainly agree the Tories have made a serious strategic error. When BuzzFeed News informed one prominent Corbyn supporter that Labour’s videos on austerity had been viewed 7.5 million times in the last month, they replied on WhatsApp simply with the crying laughter emoji.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, Corbyn’s former spokesman, told BuzzFeed News: “The Conservatives claiming they’ll end austerity suggests they know a new approach is both possible and necessary.
“But now they’ve conceded this argument to Labour, it’s more difficult for them to argue against the principle of increasing public spending. The next election might now be a race defined by which party promises to spend more, and given only Labour will be willing to increase taxes for big business it’s surely a framing the Conservatives should want to avoid.”