The Labour Party has debuted its latest social media strategy to win over voters, featuring giant rabbits, dogs and cows dressed as nurses, police officers and builders.
Entitled ‘Labour’s Plan to Change Britain (as animals)’, Labour released the thirty second video featuring AI-generated animals and menacing music on TikTok yesterday.
The ‘bonkers’ video was slammed on TikTok as ’embarrassing’ and ‘maybe not the best way to get the message across’ by voters.
Starting with an AI image of a life-sized lion, dressed as a Labour politician outside the Houses of Parliament, the video goes on to list the party’s key policy positions for its time in government.
The campaign clip, which has racked up more than 87,000 views, then depicts an intimidating British bulldog, dressed as a police officer, walking down an suburban street.
The evidently AI-generated video tells voters: ‘You’ll feel safer with more police on the beat.’
Starmer has pledged an extra 13,000 police officers, police community support officers and special constables by 2029.
The theme of the TikTok then flips to health, and shows a stern rabbit foldings its arms, dressed in a nurse’s blue scrubs.
This still reads: ‘You’ll be seen sooner by our NHS.’
This message comes as Starmer is about to announce radical new plans to cut NHS waiting times, according to The Guardian, including direct referrals for tests without first seeing a consultant.
Up next in the video is an AI badger, commuting at a British-looking railway station.
Labour promises ‘better rail services by bringing railways into public control’.
One of Labour’s first major public reforms since entering office was the re-nationalisation of train services, bringing them under a new operating body Great British Rail.
The video then focuses on Labour’s pledges on education, using a giant flying owl, dressed presumably as a teacher soaring over a school building.
‘Children ready to learn, with funded breakfast clubs’ reads the video. Labour has promised to fund up to 750 participating state-funded schools to allow children access to free breakfast and childcare, starting from April 2025.
Next in the TikTok is a mammoth hedgehog, dressed in overalls and walking alongside a windmill, with the message: ‘Billpayers are protected, with secure homegrown energy.’
Starmer has pledged to create a new, publicly owned, clean energy company, called a Great British Energy, to help achieve this.
Housing completes the bizarre clip, with a towering cow in construction workers uniform standing alongside cranes and building sites.
Labour promises TikTok viewers ‘decent affordable homes for you and your family.’
Starmer’s government aims to build 1.5million new homes by the 2029 election, a goal labelled ‘not feasible’ by one housebuilding firm.
The video is accompanied by daunting and imposing music, “Ritmos Colombianos Brazilian 2.0 (Speed Up), a 2023 song by F3RZXID and Dj Camaro.
TikTok users were left baffled by Labour’s new campaign tactic, with many left asking if an intern was behind the video.
One user, who presumably works in energy joked: ‘Labour called me a hedgehog.’
A number of people complained the use of AI imagery was taking away opportunities in the arts sector. ‘Labour will use AI slop and ignore the arts yet again,’ commented one.
Labour’s TikTok account has posted bizarre videos in the past, designed to appeal to younger audiences familiar with certain trends on the app.
At Christmas, Labour’s account posted a video of a dancing grinch, with the caption: ‘me during the Christmas break knowing we are leaving the tories in 2024.’
Metro has approached the Labour Party for comment.
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