Reform's spending on Facebook ads surged before May elections

Reform UK ramped up the funding and sophistication of its Facebook ads in the final weeks of campaigning for the May elections, in a sign of the growing financial muscle of Nigel Farage’s party.

- Michael Savage

Nigel Farage on the campaign trail in Hartlepool last Thursday as the party launched its general election campaign.

(Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

There were several days in the fortnight before the party’s breakthrough electoral performance when Reform spent more than any other party on the influential platform.

Reform’s spending through its main Facebook pages almost matched that of Labour. Only a late spurt of spending by Labour meant it narrowly outspent its rightwing rival, according to analysis by the Who Targets Me campaign group.

Reform spent £252,000 in the final two weeks of the campaign. That spending was highly centralised through just two pages - its main party page and that of Farage.

Labour spent £276,000 on the platform via its main Facebook pages, but that spending was more spread out between its main page and those of its Welsh, Scottish and regional parties.

The analysis counted spending among a party’s main accounts, defined as the main pages of its party, main regional parties and political leaders.

The data raises questions for the Conservatives, as the party was a distant third, spending £76,000 with Meta, the owner of Facebook, in the final two weeks before the election.

It was only narrowly ahead of the Scottish National party, which spent £75,000, and the Greens, who spent £74,000 over the period.