Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
July 17, 2024updated 18 Jul 2024 4:57pm

From Sunak’s Nando’s order to ‘woman pulling faces’: Top publisher general election Tiktoks

The most watched publisher videos on Tiktok during the 2024 UK general election.

By Amy Seal and Juliana Pamiloza

What were the most viewed videos of the 2024 general election campaign posted by news publishers on Tiktok? Here Press Gazette lists some of the most watched Tiktok videos relating to the 2024 UK general election campaign published by leading news publishers.

(Note this story was updated on 17 July to reflect new information shared by publishers.)

1) Rishi Sunak: What’s your Nando’s order?

This video posted by Mirror Politics was just 11 seconds long and revealed the former Prime Minister’s go-to Nando’s order. It tops our list with 6.1m views.

2) Bearded Boris rails against Keir Starmer

The Daily Mail was in the lead with 5.3 million views on one TikTok. The 40-second video, with the caption “Boris Johnson records himself dissuading people from voting for Starmer as it will lead to reintegration with EU”, features a bearded Johnson urging viewers against voting Labour. The Daily Mail has invested heavily in Tiktok and now has more than nine million followers for its main account.

2) Larry the Downing Street cat

A short video about Larry the Downing Street cat from Sky News achieved 5.3m views and is in joint second place in our ranking.

4) Sky News predicts 212-seat majority for Labour

Sky News drew 3.7m views with a video on the eve of the election based on polling which predicted a 212-seat majority for Labour. Keir Starmer in fact achieved a majority of 172 seats.

5) ITV News interview with candidate who polled fewer votes than Count Binface

ITV News achieved 3.6 million views for its video “Niko on why he’s running as an MP”. The 3 minutes and 19 seconds video showcased Youtuber Niko Omilana’s interview with ITV digital video producer Daniel Ajose. In the interview, Omilana outlined his reasons for running for election and said that he took Rishi Sunak’s claims to bring back national service personally. Video views did not turn into electoral success for Omilana, who recorded 160 votes — around half the total achieved by comedy candidate Count Binface.

6) Candidate holds up ‘L’ sign behind Rishi Sunak

A Sky News video featuring Niko Omilana holding up an L sign behind Rishi Sunak as the results for his constituency poll were announced received 3.2m views on the platform.

7) Yahoo UK: Woman pulling faces

Yahoo UK got 2.7 million views for a video titled, “Woman spotted pulling faces behind Rishi Sunak during election speech”. Posted on 30 May, the 36-second video focused on a woman in the background who appeared to roll her eyes as Sunak spoke.

8) Sunak and Starmer asked about young home ownership

BBC News garnered 2.5 million views for a video titled “Sunak and Starmer asked about young home ownership”, which featured a snippet from the ITV leaders debate when Sunak and Starmer were asked about young people being priced out of the property market. Sunak highlighted what the government had done in building homes, but said his approach would help young people save. Starmer responded by saying that Labour has a clear plan to deliver homes and services such as schools around homes.

9) Sky News: Rishi Sunak heckled by GP

Sky News got 2.2m views for a Tiktok video titled BREAKING NEWS: PM Rishi Sunak heckled by GP who challenges him on the NHS” which was posted on 7 June. In a rare unscripted campaign moment Sunak was interrupted by a heckler offscreen while giving a speech to Conservative supporters.

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Websites in our network