Photo: TikTok account @10downingstreet
Clearly, the Conservatives have had an email sent round about appearing more relatable to Gen Z and the general public. Wednesday saw Michael Gove attempting to do Scouse and American accents on BBC Breakfast, but, in an arguably more embarrassing move, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his TikTok debut on the account @10downingstreet this week. In his first clip – a shaky, 41-second one-take captioned “Welcome to Number 10 TikTok” – Johnson waffles on about how we “won’t necessarily catch him dancing”, but plans to continue “uniting and levelling up our country” with exclusive “messages and content that you might not get if you’re looking at Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and er, all the others, all the other stuff”. A riveting explanation.Johnson has posted twice since: One is an overly-edited Peaky Blinders-style intro video with Rishi Sunak, the other features him pissing about on a boat. Neither could exactly be considered “good content” – but of course, that’s my subjective opinion. To find out how the rest of the TikTok feels about their latest peer, I reached out to eight big UK creators for their thoughts.I think a lot of young people are turned off by the Conservatives, and in order to gain popularity from us young people, he should do TikTok dance challenges in his Downing Street office. He could maybe incorporate the odd nip-slip every now and then. – Isaac H.P AKA @isaach.p (1.7m followers)Personally I feel like I’m watching my dad chitter chatter. Who watches 40 second videos on TikTok? Too long, I got bored. People come on TikTok as a distraction from reality and I feel infiltrated, having Boris talk about the real world on there, that’s all. Lastly, he needs to dance. He’d break the interweb. – CHELJI AKA @itschelji (1m followers)I think if you stare at his lips as he talks it seems like he is a dead body with someone trapped inside. He looks like a trash humper. [He should] definitely set up a creator account, we have an influencer on our hands. Also, stop referring to TikTok as a “site”, lol. – Maz Ullah AKA @mmazullah (49k followers)People on TikTok can usually see through bullshit a mile off, so I’m not sure being a creator will be the most successful endeavour for him. – Sam Morris AKA @justsammorris (161k followers)As if we needed anymore out of touch, right-wing men taking up space online. My advice to Boris to make better content would be to not. – Simone Murphy @__sim0ne_ (66k followers)If I’m being honest, I hadn’t seen the TikTok until you asked me. My advice to Boris would be: Be relatable, don’t let the haters get you down and keep persevering with the content and if he fancies a collab I’d be down. As we all know how they like to get a little loose at those Number 10 parties. (I hope you can pick up on the sarcasm in the above.) – Jakkob AKA @jakkob__ (517k followers)I’m not surprised Boris has joined TikTok, he’s got to reconnect with his six-plus estranged kids somehow. If he wants to participate in any trends, I would recommend the Concrete Shoes Diving Challenge. I’m looking forward to creating as hostile an environment for Number 10 on TikTok as they have for POC and LGBT+ people IRL. – html jones AKA @htmljones (76k followers) All I have to say is that he should delete the account, resign as PM and sort out his hair before he kills anyone else x – Bella AKA @nosebleedfitz (727k followers)@HattiRex
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