Twitter Sentiment Around the Tory Party Conference

With the Conservative Party conference almost wrapped up, the data team at Trafalgar Strategy took a look back at the sentiment expressed on Twitter towards Cabinet Ministers.

First off, the Prime Minister overwhelmingly dominated the Twitter-sphere appearing in over half of all sampled tweets (410k) – yet the Home Secretary Priti Patel pipped the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak into the second place in terms of unique mentions.

Alongside the Chancellor, we found Lord Frost, the Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss and the Health Secretary Sajid Javid all appearing prominently in the Twitter conversation around Conference.

When we looked at the sentiment around each minister, unsurprisingly, The Prime Minister and Home secretary received short shrift from the Twitterati. If the Prime Minister’s parody ‘Build Back’ videos were an attempt to try and turn the tide – it appears to have partially worked – with more users liking than criticising the videos.

Lord Frost – who as Chief Brexit negotiator is now kryptonite to Remainers – received a similar negative reaction on Twitter to the Prime Minister. However, the Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary benefited from a more measured response – in part because they weren’t so prominent in the debate. Combined, all three appear in just over 15% of tweets.

Sentiment alone tells only half the story – and when engagement is factored in, the tweets driving engagement around each minister appear broadly negative for almost all ministers.

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Has the far-left lost its grip on the Labour Party?

As pundits poured over Starmer’s maiden in-person speech to the Labour Party conference, our data team trawled through the reactions on social media. Over 150k tweets were analysed and then visualised, see above. In the graph, each point represents a Twitter account and its size is based on engagement levels.

Overall, Keir Starmer can start to breathe a sigh of relief. Thanks to the efforts of Angela Rayner and Alastair Campbell, a pro-Starmer line quickly gained traction in the aftermath.

Starmer should be wary of Corbyn loyalists who are not quite ready to give up on the far-lefty project. John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Jon Trickett all came out in a seemingly orchestrated move to remind the Twittersphere that Starmer – contrary to his speech – supported the 2019 Labour manifesto. Despite all three tweets performing well, they ultimately failed to outperform Starmer’s allies on the day.

However, what should concern Starmer is an attack from Lowkey, a vocal and loyal Corbyn acolyte whose tweet – attacking Starmer for his failure to prosecute sexual assault cases when Director of Public Prosecutions – had the most engagement on the day.

Yet most concerning – for Starmer and Labour strategists – should be the reaction to a tweet from Angel Rayner attempting to reclaim Labour’s working-class roots. When we dug into the comments, we found a sizable backlash from disgruntled Twitter users — angrily pointing out Starmer’s failure to back the £15 minimum wage, his support for the EU or the party’s abandonment of working-class communities.

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Is anyone listening to the Labour Party conference in the ‘Red Wall’?

Our data team analysed articles in local media outlets distributed across Red Wall constituencies. We looked at everything published and then shared on social media since the Conference kicked off. 

To understand what drove engagement, articles were thematically mapped along with their corresponding likes, retweets and comments — enabling our data team to visualise what drove interest in the Red Wall with regard to coverage of the Labour conference.

Overall, proceedings in Brighton have barely cut through, with just over 1% of articles covering the Conference – hardly inspiring given the electoral significance of the Red Wall. 

In a further blow to the Labour Party, Andy Burnham’s outburst has been the most engaged with the topic. Even Angela Rayner’s ‘Tory scum’ antics, which got limited traction, was met with hostility and anger – seeing most comments siding with the Conservative party against Labour’s deputy leader.

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