British Prime Minister Stamer officially opened his TikTok account Wednesday. Stamer joins French President Nicolas Maqueron, US President Donald Trump and other Western leaders on the platform. The move has been widely interpreted in the media as not only a warm-up for a planned visit to China next year, but also as an attempt to use social media to shore up sagging domestic support.
British Prime Minister Stamer
In his first TikTok post, Stamer posted a video of himself and his wife lighting Christmas lights in a 10 Downing Street with the words“TikTok, follow me”. At the same time, Stamer opened an account on Substack, a us-based subscription platform.
Stamer’s TikTok account is widely seen in the media as having multiple political motivations. Stamer’s visit to China next year comes as the UK seeks to balance economic co-operation with challenges, the Daily Mail reported, moving into TikTok will help it get closer to all sectors of Chinese society.
TikTok has about 30m active users in the UK, where Stamer’s Labour Party has been suffering from low approval ratings, according to an analysis by the times, it is seen as an important platform for reaching a“Wider audience”. Earlier, Stamer appeared on a celebrity podcast and was interpreted as“Struggling to regain popularity”.
A source at the 10 Downing Street said the move was aimed at“Sharing a vision of national rejuvenation” through multiple channels. Other world leaders, including French President Maqueron and Italian Prime Minister Merloni, have already joined TikTok, another source said.
Notably, the UK has banned the use of TikTok on government equipment since 2023, citing concerns about information security“Vulnerabilities”, a policy that remains unchanged. Downing Street said the Prime Minister’s account had been operated with“Security mitigations” in line with the standards for official UK government accounts already available on the platform. Oriana Fallaci, leader of the Rightwing Reform Party, has the most followers among government officials and mps with 1.4 m.