Reform UK still dominates reach, with about 63 active Meta ads. Two have now passed a million impressions, and its biggest spend is a "ban the burqa" petition (£4K–£4.5K). The Conservatives have more than doubled their ad count to about 12. The new ads are budget attacks on Labour, a video aimed at Ed Davey and "Polls are open" get-out-the-vote ads timed for today's local by-elections. Kemi Badenoch's own page has also started advertising. Labour has relaunched its "Back Andy's plan" sign-up ads with new creatives and is back on YouTube with a mayoral candidate video. The Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid are still dark.
Scoreboard
| Party | Meta active ads | Change vs 3 Nov | Biggest Meta ad | Google (last 7 days) | Main theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reform UK | ~63 | +1 | >1M impressions | None (last ran Nov 2025) | Tax, bills, burqa ban, attacks on Burnham and the EU |
| Labour Party | ~16 | +3 (set replaced) | 70K–80K | 1 new YouTube video (4 Nov); campaign ended 31 Oct | Burnham's "new path", care |
| Conservative and Unionist Party | ~12 | +7 | 100K–125K | None (last ran Jul 2024) | Welfare against defence; Budget attacks; polling-day reminders |
| Scottish National Party | ~4 | 0 | 900K–1M | None (last ran Jun 2026) | Independence via energy wealth |
| Liberal Democrats | 0 | 0 | – | None (last ran May 2026) | – |
| Green Party of England and Wales | 0 | 0 | – | None (last ran Jul 2024) | – |
| Plaid Cymru | 0 | 0 (page now found) | – | None (last ran Jul 2024) | – |
Reform UK
- Other live lines: the HMRC "take money directly from your bank account" petition, Rosebank (250K–300K, £2K–£2.5K), fuel duty (600K–700K), scrap tax on overtime, a "savings tax raid", scrap the BBC licence fee, "stop the boats", and a new generic line: "Labour and the Tories have spent years running Britain into the ground."
- No ad in Reform's top 20 started in the last two days. Two IDs from the last report (licence fee, small boats) have been replaced by new versions with the same text.
Commentary: This is still mostly about collecting contact details. Each petition pairs a wedge issue with a sign-up button, and the spend is now led by the burqa ban, a black-and-white close-up of a niqab with bold white-and-cyan type. Burnham is now the main personal target, shown against an EU-flag background, which reflects his arrival in No 10 in July. Running dozens of near-identical variants at once looks like message testing at scale. The tax offers (personal allowance, overtime) are aimed at working households and pensioners after the 28 October Budget.
Conservative and Unionist Party
- Also new since 3 Nov: a pink "Two years of Labour: everything you need to know" stats card ("Labour don't want you to share this"), "Labour talk about giving people 'breathing space'. The truth is they are the ones choking the economy", and two more polling-day ads ("Get Britain Working Again. Vote Conservative.").
- The "Kemi's Plan" welfare/defence petition continues and has grown (from 90K–100K to 100K–125K impressions). The inheritance-tax ad is still aimed at a tiny audience (100–1K).
Commentary: A shift from collecting data to attack and persuasion. The new ads respond to the Budget by turning Chancellor John Healey's defence of his predecessor into a question, and the "Two years of Labour" card is designed to be shared. The Davey video is notable as a rare Conservative ad aimed at the Lib Dems, which suggests concern about seats the two parties contest. The polling-day ads reach audiences of only 10K–50K and carry a "Remember your photo ID" badge, which fits local get-out-the-vote work for today's council by-elections. Spend on every new line is under £100 so far.
Labour Party
- All six Library IDs from 2 November have gone and been replaced by about 16 new ads started on 3–4 November, with the same "new path" text. The lead ad now has more than twice the reach of last report's top Labour ad.
- The longer YouTube campaign (225K–250K views, £1K–£1.5K) ended on 31 October.
Commentary: This is a relaunch rather than a change of message. The creative uses portrait photos of Burnham (waving from a conference stage, or walking past a bus) with a red or yellow "Sign up" sticker, so the aim is still to build a list around the new leader. The National Care Service video is the only policy-led ad. The YouTube spot is a local candidate video with a bright yellow "Dan Can" pun, which suggests regional campaigning is coming back onto Labour's Google account.
Scottish National Party
Commentary: Unchanged set of four ads, but the energy-bill ads are picking up reach. The creative is a navy quote card in which John Swinney says Scotland's energy "should bring down our energy bills, not subsidise Westminster". Independence is argued through the cost of living, sending people to the pledge sites choose.scot and yes.scot.
Leaders and spokespeople
- Badenoch is also running "Tax, tax, tax. That's still Labour's answer to everything" and a "D-tier policies" Budget tier-list video. Findlay has a "follow my page" ad.
- Constituency-only ads from Labour ministers: Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham Ladywood newsletter and housing survey, from 19–23 Oct), Yvette Cooper (Wakefield off-road bikes and Sure Start, since September) and Wes Streeting (Ilford North, the Queen's A&E rebuild and a 2027 priorities survey, new 3 Nov). The 3 Nov report recorded no leader ads, but these started before then and were probably missed when that baseline was taken.
- Checked and inactive: Robert Jenrick, Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage, Ed Davey, John Swinney, Anas Sarwar, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Richard Tice, Rachel Reeves and Daisy Cooper. No pages were found for Zack Polanski or Zia Yusuf.
Commentary: The Conservative leaders are moving into paid personal ads, with Commons and Budget clips in a creator style (a "tier list") aimed at broad audiences (>1M). Lowe's polling-day ad for a council ward shows Restore Britain contesting local by-elections.
What to watch
- Results of today's local by-elections, and whether the Conservative and Restore Britain polling-day ads stop tomorrow.
- Whether the Conservatives keep targeting the Lib Dems (the Davey video) or stay focused on Labour and Reform.
- Whether Labour puts real money behind the relaunched Burnham ads, since the lead ad has only cost £500–£599 so far, and whether more mayoral videos appear on YouTube.
Spend and impressions are the platforms' own ranges. Meta multi-version ads often show no range on the page view, and only the top ~20 ads per page were captured (8 of ~16 for Labour). Google covers YouTube, Search and Display and is checked over the last 7 days. One Conservative Google ID (AR01893937366146482177) returned "advertiser not found" twice. TV, print and outdoor ads are not covered. Sources: Meta Ad Library pages for Conservatives, Labour, Reform UK, SNP; Google Ads Transparency Centre (UK political). Context on the chancellor and Budget: Bestinvest, Evelyn Partners.
New Meta page IDs found today: Plaid Cymru 26416930992 · Richard Tice 663238947481630 · Rachel Reeves 388650307829032 · Wes Streeting 177717252277852 · Daisy Cooper 533273977174586. None found for Zack Polanski or Zia Yusuf.