How much have the political parties spent on Facebook this election?

Come on Conservatives we know you’re flush with cash so why aren’t you spending it?

The Tories simply aren’t buying on Facebook like they did in 2017.

In the last 30 days the Conservatives have spent just £222,000 on the platform small change compared with the last election when they registered spending of £2.1 million.

We know they aren’t short of money, their latest weekly donations showed an income of £3.5m between 20-26 November, according to the Electoral Commission.

Of course they might be about to render this copy redundant and bombard voters with a whopping online campaign but if they don’t it would mark an extraordinary change of political tactics.

The Lib Dems and Labour have both outspent the last election in 2017. Credit: PA

Even though there are those who question its effectiveness huge social media spend in elections is the globally accepted norm.

As the Prime Minister's adviser Dominic Cummings wrote last week “the more personal, the better (the less spam on the channel, the more powerful it is)”.

The same cannot be said for Labour and the Lib Dems both of whom have already outspent the last election in 2017 and neither show any sign of slowing-up.

The Labour party have spent the most on Facebook so far this election. Credit: PA

How much have the parties spent on Facebook in the last 30 days?

  • Conservatives – £222,000

  • Labour – £618,000

  • Lib Dems – £561,000

How much did parties spend in total on Facebook in 2017?

  • Conservatives - £2.1m

  • Labour – £577,000

  • Lib Dems – £412,000

The Conservative Party spent over four times as much as the Lib Dems on Facebook in 2017. Credit: PA

The data can’t be matched precisely because parties don’t have to register their spending with the Electoral Commission yet.

Similarly the Facebook data includes a few days outside the official election period.

That said the comparison is a strong indicator of where we are so far.