Andy Burnham has been crowned Britain’s first TikTok PM, but do the numbers back it up?

Every major broadsheet and broadcaster has fawned over the arrival of the “First TikTok PM”. LinkedIn grifters have gone from talking about B2B sales to highlighting the thirteen new social media jobs offered by Number 10, and Burnham has seemingly collaborated with every online influencer — from a man on a ladder, to a lady on a bus.

Beyond the media praise, is the assessment that Burnham is better online actually true?

From 2017 to 2024, I advised countless UK politicians as a digital adviser. I filmed Rory Stewart sleeping on someone’s sofa whilst running for Mayor of London, I captured James Cleverly eating jollof rice as Foreign Secretary, and I was in that fateful room when Rishi Sunak decided to wear Adidas Sambas with a suit.

For some of the most viral moments in UK politics, I was behind the camera.

More often than not, whether I was successful at my job was defined not by the number of likes or views I generated — the objective measurement of virality — but by whether the Twitter commentariat crowned the leader I was working with as “a good communicator”.

So when the Westminster bubble cast anointed Burnham as worthy of such an accolade, I was inherently sceptical.

Did this perception of Burnham as a strong online communicator align with the data?

There’s a few ways to measure this, and the company I founded shortly after leaving Number 10, Knox Digital, tracks the online performance of every individual MP to understand who is actually winning online.

Firstly, is he reaching lots of people? This is defined by views and engagement.

Burnham launched his TikTok account ahead of the Makerfield by-election in June and has gained over 450,000 followers since. In the last month his videos were viewed more than 34 million times, six times the views generated by Nigel Farage.

Burnham is growing faster online than any other UK politician over the past decade.

Farage has been on TikTok since 2022 and has painstakingly built the largest political following on the platform, whilst Burnham has been posting for barely three months. But on his current trajectory, he will surpass Farage's 1.5 million followers by Christmas.

Secondly, when he reaches people, what is the depth of sentiment and response?

This is measured by engagement rate, shares and comments.

The sentiment towards Burnham online is increasingly positive. We classified more than 175,000 comments left on Burnham's videos and found that net sentiment towards him has risen steadily over the past four weeks.

On the 18th May, comments on his TikTok had a net sentiment of -23%. Today, it’s only -3% — showing that people are increasingly receptive to the new Prime Minister across the platform.

In less than a month Burnham has managed to dramatically improve how positively audiences are engaging with his message.

Thirdly, is he reaching outside of his existing audience and the Westminster bubble?

This is measured by the volume and nature of his collaborations — shared posts that come from one or more individual.

Indeed, Burnham has been unapologetic in his collaborations with influencers. This has allowed him to reach far beyond the bubble.

On his first week in office, Burnham partnered with Max Klymenko (9.8m followers), Bus Aunty (444.1k followers), jogged through London with Sir Mo Farah (198,000 views) and invited the teenage TikTokers who helped in Makerfield into Downing Street.

The essential link between a careers interviewer, a bus enthusiast and an Olympic champion is that none of them are political.

Burnham is going to where audiences already are, and not relying on the traditional Westminster bubble to get his message across.

Our analysis from the Knox Index in June showed that on TikTok, insurgent parties were winning online.

Farage was the most effective political figure on the platform, independent MP and Your Party Member Jeremy Corbyn was second, not a single member of Starmer's cabinet made the top ten, and the Greens held the highest engagement rate of any party.

But with a change in leader, there has been a noticeable change in Labour’s fortunes online.

Interestingly, Burnham has lifted Labour's overall engagement rate above Reform's, with Labour now leading by around a percentage point — 11.6% to 10.6%.

Labour pulled clearly ahead in July 2026, the month Burnham entered Downing Street, having trailed Reform through June — 5.8% to 10.5%.

What’s more, Andy Burnham has created an existential threat for the Greens.

Since Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July, the Greens have declined on TikTok. Their average views per post are down around 16% and, for Green Party leader Zack Polanski, the fall is sharper: his average views per post have more than halved.

Westminster is moving with the new Prime Minister.

Twice as many UK politicians actively post on TikTok compared to the start of last year, and their content is being watched nearly four times as much, with 87 million views in the last month alone.

So is Andy Burnham just the latest “good communicator” anointed by Westminster insiders, or is his online impact genuine?

It’s clear from the numbers that Burnham is reaching more voters, different kinds of voters, and engaging voters more deeply than any other previous Prime Minister.

The only question that remains is whether this strong online performance will continue to be an asset.

Audiences today are receptive to Burnham’s online charisma, but it’s easy to see a sceptical British electorate moaning about “style over substance” if he fails to convert his positive shine into perceived change.

No amount of TikToks can hold back the ire of a disgruntled British electorate hell bent on change.

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Jock McMillan is a leading digital communications strategist and founder of Knox Digital. He has worked on political and strategic communications campaigns in more than 15 countries, specialising in high-impact digital strategy. He previously served as a Special Adviser to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

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