How the Labour Party’s campaign strategy has been influenced by social media’s culture war
Last week I wrote about how the Conservative party has weaponised a culture war, particularly in relation to social media. It is also important to consider how the Labour Party have reacted to this and how they themselves have also used the culture war on social media to campaign. Whilst many Labour MPs have insisted that the party will not take part in the ‘toxic culture war’, many have embraced the concept, and have been using the same talking points as the Conservative Party in an attempt to appeal to voters.
In terms of the party’s campaign strategy, the so-called ‘gotcha’ politics of recent years has been evident. Earlier this month, Labour published a series of adverts attacking the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with one reading – “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak does”. Another in the series of ads targeted Sunak’s wife over her non-dom status. Keir Starmer has since refused to apologise for the ads. Such adverts demonstrate the clear influence social media has had on political campaigning – the snappy, shock value nature of the adverts mirrors what you might hear on Twitter or TikTok. The ads also determine how the culture war, which can clearly be traced back to social media, has been embraced by the Labour Party. Similar to Jacob Rees Mogg’s condemnation of the editing of Roald Dahl books, Labour are appealing to voters’ emotional side with sound bites rather than detailing serious policy proposals around, for example, the cost-of-living crisis.
Whilst various Labour MPs have made it clear that they do not wish to involve themselves in the culture war, Wes Streeting, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has made various comments which suggest he is happy to participate in the so-called culture war. Given his position in the Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet, his comments are significant and give a hint as to how the Labour Party will approach campaigning for the upcoming general election. A widely debated topic of recent years, a debate which many consider to have started on social media, has been that of gender identity and trans rights. The debate largely focuses on the Gender Recognition Act, which allows those who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. Interestingly, the Act came into place in 2004, but has only caused significant outrage in recent years, with many calling for it to be overturned or changed. Many of the talking points of the ‘debate’, such as whether trans women should be allowed into women’s bathrooms, could actually be seen as a non-argument because the GRA has been in place for many years with no problems. This is, of course, down to the role of social media – the conversation around the topic on sites like Twitter have had a huge impact on the talking points of politicians. Wes Streeting waded into the topic by claiming JK Rowling, who has faced backlash for her comments on trans women, should not be ‘shut down’ in the debate. He also stated that men and women are defined by their reproductive organs and called this comment a “biology lesson”. His comments are a clear reaction to the campaigning strategy of many Conservative politicians, particularly Lee Anderson, who claimed that the next election would be fought on this particular subject. The subject is considered to be a significant element of the culture war, because it has been used as a dividing line between so-called ‘common sense’ and the ‘wokerati’, by the Tories. By commenting on the topic, Streeting may be playing into the Conservative’s hands because their strategy is to fight the next election on topics like these rather than economic policy proposals.
Will Labour as a whole, however, embrace the culture war? The Labour MP Zarah Sultana has criticised the government for ‘dividing communities’ around the subject and various other Labour MPs have made similar comments. It seems evident that although there are hints that the party will embrace the culture war as a campaign strategy in the coming years, there has not been a consensus within the party about their approach to campaigning. This could be a gift to the Tories – if they can position themselves as the party of so-called ‘common sense’ and attack Labour on the grounds that they represent the ‘woke metropolitan elite’, it could work in their favour. One strength that the Tories possess going into the next election campaign is that they all seem committed to stoking the culture war and using it to their advantage, whilst Labour is evidently split on the issue. However, if Labour continue to produce adverts like the ones of recent weeks, the next election will indeed be the election of political sound bites and arguments around which bathroom one should use.
