In June 2024, Labour romped to a landslide victory after fourteen years out of power. Against an international trend of voters turning away from the center-left, the party enjoyed one of the biggest wins in its history, with 411 MPs elected to parliament thanks in part to a bold, digital-first campaign.

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It was no accident. Winning took a focused campaign and strong leadership. It required a shift in the way the progressive left uses online platforms, and a change of culture and attitude towards the internet as an arena for political action.

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During the 2016 Brexit referendum, the Leave campaign successfully harnessed online spaces to influence voters and create a huge political upset. The reaction from the progressive left in the UK, who largely wanted to remain in the EU, was to blame the result on murky organizations weaving dark magic online, ‘tricking’ voters into casting their ballots against their interests.

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The 2019 general election saw a stark repeat, with a thumping victory for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. Again, there was a tendency on the left to complain about the lies and manipulation spread online, rather than a structured attempt to compete in digital spaces.

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Labour’s 2024 campaign was different. Our digital team embraced the chaos of the online environment, focused on where our target voters were, and used every available tool to reach them. We learned the lessons of recent defeats and understood that the political center-left can do more than simply survive in online spaces – we can thrive. 

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The first step was making sure we had the necessary skills in place. Together, Labour’s Director of Digital, Tom Lillywhite, and Deputy Director, Caitlin Roper, built a dedicated digital unit at Labour HQ which soon became known for its nimble, culture-first content. This was complemented by an advertising team, an engagement unit focused on email fundraising, and a dedicated specialist in digital organizing.

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The next step was demonstrating our value outside headquarters. Change is never easy. The UK Labour Party is 100 years old – an organization with deep roots in the trade union movement, strong local constituency parties, and vital expertise in traditional campaigning methods! It was my job to launch our digital strategy in target seats across the UK, supported by 13 graduates from Labour’s Digital Trainee Scheme (first advertised in late 2022). We employed our skills as digital organizers to reach an ever-increasing number of potential voters and – crucially – overcome significant internal skepticism. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Labour candidates in local elections and parliamentary by-elections – so often anonymous to the public – were being recognized in the street and jokingly referred to as celebrities. People started quoting our campaign slogans on doorsteps – and results kept outperforming expectations. Funding was found to grow our Digital Trainee Scheme and a new group of 22 activists were hired to help build on our momentum.

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A clear strategy for success

We stuck to a clear strategy, based around high quality, on message digital content for every candidate, featuring videos of real people (identified by our field campaigners) who had decided to switch to Labour from the Conservatives. Our candidates also benefited from local digital advertising campaigns, as well as supporter growth programs.

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More and more, candidates and activists began to see the value of our digital program. Candidates, previously measured only on their door-to-door canvassing numbers, could now compare their digital output with peers across the country. And activists, instead of being deployed exclusively in offline organizing, were now encouraged to take part in political conversations on social media. To support them, we created an activist ‘cohort’ in every target seat, and opportunities for cohort leaders to connect with one another online, share best practices, and take part in messaging workshops.

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‘Operation Go’

When the Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, suddenly called a general election (looking rain-sodden and defeated on television), he took his own party by surprise – but not Labour.

The fact that our local digital advertising campaigns were plugged into Party HQ meant we were able to release targeted ads – featuring 200 pre-prepared campaign videos from Labour candidates – before Sunak had even finished speaking. We didn’t just keep up with the Tories’ surprise election announcement – we overtook it!

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And then we kept going, breaking new ground as the first major political party in Britain to run a TikTok account. Politics on TikTok is not a straightforward proposition. The potential for embarrassment is high, but then so are the potential rewards. We monitored new trends on the app and created original, TikTok-specific content designed to spark real conversations beyond the platform. Thanks to our top-class content creators, and the trust which our digital team had built within the party hierarchy, our content was shared by millions, demonstrating that – with the right tools and expertise – progressives can keep pace with our ever-changing cultural landscape.

We formed ‘411’ because these tools and tactics work – and we can’t wait to start sharing them with progressive organizations in the UK, Europe, and around the world.