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.