Labour significantly outspent the Conservatives at the last general election including more than £12m advertising on platforms including Facebook and Snapchat, figures show.
The last general election had the highest spending on record with more than £94m spent by political parties – about a quarter of which went on traditional direct mail to voters.
Overall, Labour spent £30m compared with £23m by the Conservatives, according to data published by the Electoral Commission.
The spending figures showed the two main parties significantly outspent smaller ones, with the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK spending about £5.5m each.
Labour spent more than £3m advertising with Facebook’s owner, Meta, and £2m with Google – with an overall advertising spend of £12m. They also advertised in print media, on media platforms such as Spotify, Snapchat and Mumsnet, and on billboards.
Labour also spent about £140,000 on a US platform called Swayable, which says that its artificial intelligence (AI) can measure the impact of political messaging before it is launched.
The Conservatives spent much less on advertising, with an outlay of less than £6m, including a similar £3m with Meta, but they spent almost £2m on consultancy provided by a company owned by their campaign guru, Isaac Levido.
High ticket items spent by Reform include almost £1m on rightwing newspaper advertising in the Daily Mail and Telegraph titles, as well as large sums on political rallies.
The £94m spent by political parties on the 2024 general election was far higher than the £72.6m spent in 2019, £56m spent in 2017 and £55m in 2015. The higher spending was allowed because the Conservatives raised the limits, but they do not appear to have been the main beneficiaries.
The data shows that the largest amount of money was still spent on traditional unsolicited paper mail – leaflets and letters sent directly to voters – £26m spent on these compared with £20m spent on advertising.
Jackie Killeen, the director of electoral administration at the Electoral Commission, said high levels of participation and campaigning “give voters information about the candidates standing, and today’s publication shows voters how that activity was funded”.
“Making this information available to voters is an important component of the UK’s political finance system, which helps build voter trust and confidence.”
In terms of non-party campaigners, the highest-spending entity was the National Education Union (NEU) at more than £600,000, Best for Britain at more than £400,000, the Unison union at £400,000, the pressure group 38 Degrees at £200,000, and the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate at than £150,000.
Last year also included the highest number of registered parties on record, with 60 contesting the election. Of those, seven spent more than £250,000, according to the Electoral Commission.
