Reform UK matches Labour in Facebook ad spend during final election push

Reform UK significantly escalated its digital campaigning expenditure in the final two weeks of the May election, spending £252,000 on its main Facebook pages. This figure closely paralleled Labour’s £276,000 outlay on primary pages, although Labour’s total across all associated accounts reached £653,427. The campaign utilised sophisticated, centrally managed targeting by postcode and localised messaging, marking a departure from previous methods. This surge was underpinned by substantial financial backing, including £5.5 million in donations during the final quarter of 2025, largely from crypto investor Christopher Harborne.

Data analysis by the Who Targets Me campaign group indicates that Reform UK’s spending through its main party page and Nigel Farage’s personal page nearly matched Labour’s primary page spend. While Labour narrowly outspent its rival on main accounts, its expenditure was more dispersed across Welsh, Scottish, and regional party pages. Reform’s approach was highly centralised, with the party spending more than any other competitor on the platform for several days in the fortnight leading up to the election.

The Conservatives finished a distant third in this specific metric, spending £76,000 with Meta in the final two weeks. This was only marginally ahead of the Scottish National party at £75,000 and the Greens at £74,000. Sam Jeffers, founder of Who Targets Me, noted that Reform had dramatically upped its game, moving away from the reliance on viral organic messaging that characterised previous right-wing movements like UKIP.

Reform’s digital strategy incorporated localised ads, a tactic popularised by the Liberal Democrats, to target specific voter concerns. Messages in Scotland described the SNP as a calamity, while Welsh campaigns focused on preventing a Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition. Meta data confirmed that Reform targeted thousands of individual postcodes, a shift from the nationalised campaign approach seen in 2024. Jeffers described the operation as professionalised and organised, resembling multiple simultaneous local campaigns rather than a single national effort.

The increased capacity for digital advertising was supported by a significant inflow of cash. Reform UK attracted £5.5 million in the last quarter of 2025, with £3 million coming from crypto investor Christopher Harborne and a £200,000 donation from JC Bamford Excavators. This funding allowed the party to staff up and maintain a high level of spending, capitalising on the general election spending limit which was increased by 80 per cent in 2023.