Strapped up in his navy suit, blue tie and charmingly nerdy glasses, Andy Burnham entered No 10 newly appointed as our fifth prime minister in four years. I didn’t watch this historic scene live on BBC News. Instead, I saw a 10-second clip on TikTok, with a viral Love Island soundbite: “A hot new bombshell has entered the villa.” Not exactly the introduction you might expect from a world leader – or is it?
The video sent millions of eyes rolling backwards and many flocking to the comments, cringing at the idea of British politics succumbing to ridiculous social media trends. Critics have called his social media strategy “trivial” and a “distraction”. After years of leadership turmoil and a flailing Labour government under Keir Starmer, should we really be making light of yet another transfer of power on a platform designed for teenagers?
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More than a month into the job, Burnham’s team has continued the shenanigans on his own accounts (where he has more than a million followers across Instagram and TikTok combined). Scroll down his feed and you will still find a fair amount of silliness, but the tide is starting to change.
One video starts with the PM defending “barms” – the northern-preferred nickname for a bread roll (it’s definitely a bap, sorry Andy) – before seamlessly flowing into a metaphor for his strategy of devolution and handing back power to local councils. It now has more than 850,000 views.
Similarly, when he talked through his education strategy on TikTok, cheekily transitioning between holding a graduation cap and hard hat, his audience listened. That video has 3m views and is flooded with comments of people feeling alarmingly inspired by his plans. “Have we actually maybe finally got a good one?” one user said. Finally, it seems we have a politician who comes across like a real person who knows how to talk to other real people (even if it does remind you of your dad trying to prove he’s down with the kids) – and for gen Z members like me, it’s working.
Social media popularity isn’t the end goal, but it is the first hurdle. If you want young people to vote for you, you have to find a way to make them care. You have to meet them where they are. And in today’s attention-span economy, that is the hardest job of all. Reuters’ 2026 Digital News Report found that, globally, 52% of 18- to 24-year-olds use social media, video networks and AI chatbots as the main way of getting their news.
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If you’re over 30, Burnham’s videos may seem clumsy – embarrassing, even. But don’t get it twisted, the PM’s team knows exactly what it’s doing. Burnham has tapped into something I have long understood: if we have any chance of overturning the general sense of misery in this country, we need to get young people to believe in politics again. This is the first time in my adult life I have heard my peers say they actually like what the PM is doing, that they think he’s a decent guy, and that there’s a reason to hope again.
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Since the Brexit referendum in 2016, I’ve witnessed my generation become increasingly disillusioned with politics. Faced with crippling student loans, the risk of becoming a Neet, or the seeming impossibility of getting on the property ladder, young people have had little to hope for under previous governments. Rebuilding the PM’s trust among the young is the only way to dismantle more than a decade of political alienation.
What Burnham is doing is nothing new. Labour understood the power of social media to rally younger voters during the 2024 general election, and it paid off. YouGov polling documents that 41% of those aged 18-24 voted Labour, rising to 45% among those aged 25-29. Keir Starmer was the first British PM to launch a personal TikTok profile, where he tried – and failed – to maintain Labour’s initial momentum. Ultimately, his stuffy and ineffective communication style ended up alienating the very voters that handed him his mandate in the first place. Hopefully, Burnham won’t make the same mistake.
TikTok fame won’t buy Burnham unwavering support. Nor should it. We might be a fickle generation, but we’re not stupid. No one really thinks a few viral videos equates to the PM effecting real and lasting change. But getting young people on side is essential work; work that could keep Labour in government for a generation, if he plays his cards right.
