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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has launched a TikTok account despite the app being banned from government devices, in what is being seen as a fresh attempt to connect with younger voters amid falling approval ratings.
Starmer posted his first video on Monday, showing him alongside his wife at the ceremony to switch on the Christmas lights outside 10 Downing Street. In a brief clip, he told viewers, “TikTok, follow me.”
Another video shared shortly afterwards showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky greeting Starmer outside the Prime Minister’s residence before they were joined by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for talks on proposals to end the war in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for Starmer’s office confirmed that “security mitigations” were in place to allow the Prime Minister to use the platform safely, stressing that there had been no change to existing government policy on TikTok.
“The restrictions on the use of the app on most government devices remain in place,” the spokesperson said, adding that the Prime Minister’s account was operating under appropriate safeguards.
The UK government banned TikTok from official devices in March 2023 over concerns about data security, particularly in relation to the app’s ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance. Several Western countries have introduced similar measures.
An official Downing Street TikTok account was previously launched in May 2022 under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but it stopped posting content just three months later.
Starmer’s move comes as he looks for new ways to communicate directly with the public at a time when his administration is battling persistently low popularity ratings.
Last week, he also launched a newsletter on Substack, using the platform to defend government policies aimed at addressing child poverty.
The government has additionally sought to engage social media influencers, with two personal finance content creators invited to sit in the front row at a recent press conference.
Despite ongoing security concerns, TikTok remains one of the world’s most widely used social media platforms, boasting around 1.5 billion users globally and more than 30 million in the UK.
Starmer now joins a growing list of world leaders active on the platform, including Emmanuel Macron, US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
