General election: Toolmakers and Haribo – how the Sky News event unfolded online
While Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer spent yesterday evening trying to convince voters in Grimsby to back their parties during Sky’s TV event, another audience was analysing the pair from afar – on social media.
From confessions of the prime minister’s love for “sugary” treats to others reminding Labour how many times Sir Keir Starmer has said his dad is a toolmaker, there was a lot going on.
This is how the audience online received the debate.
Using social media listening tool, TalkWalker, Sky News has analysed how well-received both leaders were during the event on TikTok, YouTube and X.
The data from TalkWalker shows a large majority of social media users talking about the two leaders were not positive in sentiment – but either negative or neutral.
Our search looked at posts using ‘Keir Starmer’ and ‘Rishi Sunak’ from accounts which set their location to the United Kingdom and were posted during the hours of Sky’s TV special programme. Sir Keir only narrowly beat the prime minister on posts with positive sentiment – scoring 7.2% versus Rishi Sunak on 4.5%.
Read more:
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Starmer reveals ‘worry’ for family if he enters No 10
The platform uses AI to measure the sentiment of chatter online whether positive or negative – but doesn’t include Meta products like Facebook or Instagram.
This compares to a snap YouGov poll following last night’s event which shows that almost two-thirds – 64% – of those questioned said the Labour leader came out on top, compared to 36% who thought the prime minister did better.
Sir Keir’s father was a toolmaker – did you know?
Pic: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
First in line for grilling was the Labour leader. Pushed on issues like the economy and abandoned pledges, one of the biggest reactions from the audience was his response to taxes and how much he earns.
Sir Keir said he accepts that he earns a lot of money in his current role (over £126k), proceeding to repeat a line many have heard from him before. The line didn’t just make the audience in Grimsby laugh but was one of the most viral moments from the event online.
He said: “When I grew up my dad was a toolmaker, he worked in a factory, it’s true, and my mum was a nurse… and actually we couldn’t make ends meet, which isn’t actually a laughing matter.”
One version of the clip posted on X gained over 700,000 views in the first two hours and is now almost at two million impressions.
Others joked online that it’s a phrase the Labour leader has used many times before – even the gambling company PaddyPower seemed to jump on the trend posting a video of the popular gif of football fan Lee Judges saying “he’s done it again….”
Sunak’s guilty pleasure… are Haribos
Could you tell the audience something that might make them like you a bit more again?
Mr Sunak said people might think he has a “healthy lifestyle”, but in fact he admitted to having an “appalling diet” and eats an “enormous amount of sugar” – with the prime minister naming Haribos and Twix among his favourites.
Memes of the prime minister and his love for sugar soon emerged on X. Other parody accounts tweeted “vote for me because I eat Haribos” – featuring a picture of the prime minister last night.
What were the other parties doing?
While last night’s programme only featured the Labour and Conservative leaders, some of the other parties did chime in.
The Liberal Democrats took to X to jab at the prime minister – although it wasn’t focused on policy and more on his appearance.
Meanwhile, the SNP shared a post from candidate Alison Thewliss which claimed Sir Keir’s answers in last night’s event “confirmed” that Labour are “not serious about child poverty”.
As last night’s event was taking place, Sky News analysis of the TikTok, Facebook and X official accounts of the other parties – Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, Reform UK, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, shows that most of the parties seemed rather quiet on their social media accounts with few or no posts about last night’s event.
Meanwhile the official accounts for the Green Party, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru show the parties instead posted about their own campaigns and did not react online to Sir Keir and Mr Sunak’s performances in the event.
This article is part of the Online Election project – a Sky News initiative to cover how the campaign is playing out online, led by Tom Cheshire who is our Online Campaign correspondent throughout.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Politics
European leaders to meet in Ukraine for ‘coalition of the willing’ talks – and issue call to Russia
Sir Keir Starmer will join other European leaders in Kyiv on Saturday for talks on the “coalition of the willing”.
The prime minister is attending the event alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, recently-elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
It will be the first time the leaders of the four countries will travel to Ukraine at the same time – on board a train to Kyiv – with their meeting hosted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Follow latest updates on the Ukraine war
Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz travelling in the saloon car of a special train to Kiev. Pic: Reuters
Military officers from around 30 countries have been involved in drawing up plans for the coalition, which would provide a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire being agreed between Russia and Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting on Saturday, Sir Keir, Mr Macron, Mr Tusk and Mr Merz released a joint statement voicing support for Ukraine and calling on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire.
Sir Keir and Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in March. Pic: AP
“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” they said.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
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Putin’s Victory Day parade explained
The leaders said they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible”.
But they warned that they would continue to “ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine” until Moscow agrees to a lasting ceasefire.
“We are clear the bloodshed must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion, and Ukraine must be able to prosper as a safe, secure and sovereign nation within its internationally recognised borders for generations to come,” their statement added.
“We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine.”
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The European leaders are set to visit the Maidan, a central square in Ukraine’s capital where flags represent those who died in the war.
They are also expected to host a virtual meeting for other leaders in the “coalition of the willing” to update them on progress towards a peacekeeping force.
This force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace”, according to Number 10.
Politics
The ‘tricky balancing act’ facing Starmer over US trade deal – and the real challenge to come
If you want a very visual representation of the challenges of transatlantic diplomacy in 2025, look no further than Oslo City Hall.
Its marbled mural-clad walls played home to a European military summit on Friday.
In December – as it does every year – it will host the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. It’s an award Donald Trump has said he deserves to win.
But while the leaders gathering in the Norwegian capital may not say it publicly, they all have a very different perspective to the US president on how to win the peace – particularly when it comes to Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer at a summit in Oslo. Pic: PA
So far, Sir Keir Starmer has managed to paper over these foreign policy gaps between the US and Europe with warm words and niceties.
But squaring the two sides off on trade may be more difficult.
The US-UK deal announced on Thursday contained no obvious red flags that could scupper deeper trade links with the EU.
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PM defends UK-US trade deal
However, that’s in part because it was more a reaction and remedy to Mr Trump’s tariff regime than a proactive attempt to meld the two countries together.
Laced with party-political venom, yes, but the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is getting at something when she says this agreement is “not even a trade deal, it’s a tariff deal and we are in a worse position now than we were six weeks ago”.
There may be more to come though.
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How good is the UK-US deal?
The government will talk up the possible benefits, but there are risks too.
Take the Digital Services Tax – much hated by the Trump White House as an unfair levy on US tech firms.
Despite the apparent pitch-rolling from the government, that was left untouched this week.
But asked to rule out changes in the future, the prime minister was non-committal, simply saying the current deal “doesn’t cover that”.
Read more:
Key details of UK-US trade deal
Not the broad trade deal of Brexiteer dreams – analysis
For trade expert David Henig, the potential flashpoints in the transatlantic Venn diagram Downing Street is trying to draw around food standards, digital regulation and services.
“It is a tricky balancing act, at this stage it looks like the UK will go more with the EU on goods regulations, but perhaps a little bit more with the US on services regulations,” he said.
For veterans of the post-2016 Brexit battles, this may all sound like Labour embracing the Boris Johnson-era mantra of “cakeism” – or trying to have it both ways.
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It’s ironic indeed, given Sir Keir is a politician who supported the Remain campaign and then called for a second referendum.
But what matters now is what works – not for Downing Street but for the swathes of voters who have abandoned Labour since they took office.
That’s why the prime minister was once again trying to humanise this week’s trade deals.
These are agreements, he said, that would be measured in the “many thousands of jobs” they would safeguard across the country.
That’s the real challenge now, taking the work done in the marbled halls of the world’s capitals and convincing people at home why it matters to them.
A group of Democratic senators has reportedly sent a letter to leadership at the US Department of Justice and the Treasury Department expressing concerns about US President Donald Trump’s ties to cryptocurrency exchange Binance and potential conflicts of interest in regulating the industry.
According to a May 9 Bloomberg report, Democratic senators asked Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to report on the steps Binance had taken as part of its November 2023 plea agreement with US authorities, amid reports that Trump and his family had deepened connections with the exchange.
That settlement saw Binance pay more than $4 billion as part of a deal with the Justice Department, Treasury, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and had then-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao step down.
However, since Trump won the presidency in 2024, many lawmakers have accused the president of corruption from profiting off crypto while being in a position to influence laws and regulations over the industry.
Trump has launched his own memecoin — which earns the project millions of dollars in transaction fees — and offered the top tokenholders the opportunity to attend an exclusive dinner in Washington, DC. His family-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX, would settle a $2 billion investment in Binance using the platform’s USD1 stablecoin.
“Our concerns about Binance’s compliance obligations are even more pressing given recent reports that the company is using the Trump family’s stablecoin to partner with foreign investment companies,” the senators said in the letter, according to Bloomberg.
Related: Trump tricked into pushing XRP for crypto reserve: Report
Stablecoin bill fails to pass the US Senate
The letter came less than 24 hours after some of the same senators blocked a crucial vote on a bill to regulate stablecoins, named the GENIUS Act. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who reportedly signed the letter and opposed moving forward on the stablecoin bill, suggested the Senate should not be aligned with “facilitat[ing] this kind of corruption” from Trump.
Bessent said the Senate “missed an opportunity” by not passing the stablecoin bill, but did not directly address any of the concerns over Trump’s crypto interests. It’s unclear if or when the chamber could consider another vote on the bill.
In an April 23 report, the nonpartisan organization State Democracy Defenders Action said roughly 40% of Trump’s net worth was tied to crypto. The group noted that the GENIUS Act, in its current version, “would not prevent President Trump from using his executive powers to establish a regulatory environment and enforcement agenda that prioritizes his personal enrichment over the broader interests of US stakeholders.”
Amid the concerns with the stablecoin and proposed market structure bills, Zhao reportedly applied for a federal pardon from Trump. Though the former CEO already served four months in prison, a pardon for his felony charge could allow him to get more involved with the crypto industry through a management position.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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