Jeremy Corbyn has discussed social media’s role in the 2017 UK general election.
In the run-up to the election on June 8, the Labour Party saw a huge increase in support. In the first poll after the vote, Corbyn’s party is now ahead of the Tories in terms of voting intentions. It is the first time in years that Labour have polled ahead of their opposition.
Speaking to NME after his speech on the Pyramid Stage yesterday (June 24), the Labour leader explained what he saw as the differences between the general election campaign compared to previous Labour campaigns. “We fought a very different election campaign to ones that we’ve done int he past – it was on the streets, it was open air meetings and rallies,” he said. “I did 100 events during the election campaign, many of which were open air rallies on beaches all over the country, and we’re doing it all over again because I think the politics of people coming together – often with very different ideas – to at least listen to each other and talk about it is good.”
He continued: “That I’m very pleased to promote and present, but also social media came into its own so whilst a number of the print media where incredibly hostile to Labour and individuals on our front bench team – John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and myself – in reality social media has far greater reach.
“Those who follow Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and so on really helped to get the message across and it certainly resulted in the voter registration that was so important with probably two million people registering to vote in the last two weeks before the election,” Corbyn added.
He also said the world has changed since Theresa May called the snap election. “I think we’re in a very different place,” he said. “The election was called and the experts predicted a walkover for the Tories. Theresa May fought the election as her versus the world and we fought the election on the basis of the people deserve a hearing and something better.”