UK PM Theresa May suffers online backlash after terror attacks

DAYS before Brits went to the polls, the writing was already on the wall for Prime Minister Theresa May. You just had to know where to look.

THE UK terror attacks have sparked a massive social media backlash against Theresa May’s leadership, upending the conventional rule that voters turn to the government in times of crisis and paving the way for another shock election result.

And in a bizarre phenomenon, the immigration debate appeared to catch fire in the mainstream media after the Manchester bombing only to be all but completely wiped out in the wake of the London attacks.

Research obtained by news.com.au from the global media analysis firm Meltwater before the UK poll suggests the massive disruption seen by the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump may well continue as the UK votes.

Early exit polling suggests Ms May has lost her majority and is facing the very real prospect of a hung parliament.

The data shows that social media mentions of the UK Prime Minister skyrocketed in relation to the attacks but were overwhelmingly negative, with heavy mentions of police funding cuts and links with Saudi Arabia being pushed by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

It now remains to be seen whether this is evidence of Twitter’s oft-criticised left-wing bias or a pointer to yet more upheaval in global politics. Or possibly both.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has a bit to worry about. Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

In the period spanning the Manchester bombing and the London atrocity – May 22 to June 4 – Theresa May got 11,466 social media mentions in connection to the attacks compared to just 690 for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Mentions in relation to the London attack were more focussed on Theresa May due to her prior relations with Saudi Arabia,” the Meltwater report said.

“This included high retweets of posts from WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.”

One Twitter post from WikiLeaks, retweeted more than 2600 times, read: “Did ISIS just intervene in the UK election as it appears to have done with Le Pen per its “grayzone” strategy?”

Another from Assange, retweeted more than 4000 times, accused the PM of suppressing the release of a “report on who really funds terrorism” accompanied by the hashtag “#Saudi”.

Again, in the aftermath of the London attack, from June 5 to June 8, May had 5659 mentions in relation to it compared to just 239 for Corbyn. However the posts for the former Home Secretary were again highly negative.

“A particular key topic was Theresa May’s cuts to police funding, with posters describing her as failing Britain’s security system,” the report said.

Tellingly, the trending keywords around Theresa May were upended by the attacks. Before the attacks the number one keyword was “Brexit” – seen as May’s strongest political advantage – with around 13,000 mentions, more than double that of the second biggest keyword “Corbyn”.

However after the attacks the number one keyword associated with May was “Corbyn” – more than 30,000 times – while her preferred Brexit battleground receded behind other keywords such as “election” and “terror”.

For Corbyn himself, the keyword most overwhelmingly associated with him both before and

Jeremy Corbyn has strong branding. Photo: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

after the attacks was “Labour”, which speaks to either supernatural branding success or a highly orchestrated online campaign. Worryingly for May, “police cuts” was another key topic.

Another remarkable finding was that in the days leading up to the London attack the number of articles in the UK mainstream media on immigration was enormous, with both May and Corbyn associated with more than 450 articles that mentioned “immigration policy” in just five days.

However in the five days after the London attack “immigration policy” was mentioned only 24 times in conjunction with Corbyn and 33 times in conjunction with May. Whether this was due to the blanket coverage of the attacks themselves or a sudden change in national mood is unclear.

Another interesting statistic is that in the mainstream UK news media the share of mentions about Theresa May in relation to terrorism in the week from June 1 to June 8 was 61 per cent compared to 39 per cent for Jeremy Corbyn.

On social media that same breakdown was 98 per cent referring to May and terrorism compared to just 2 per cent for Corbyn.

Jeremy Corbyn: Two per cent never felt so good. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Again, this could point to a leftist tilt in social media given the other negative perceptions against May, however the data is silent on the matter.

If the online trend is reflective of electoral sentiment it would be a reversal of the conventional political wisdom that concerns about national security favour both incumbent governments and conservative parties. For example, it is almost universally acknowledged that the Tampa crisis and September 11 attacks were pivotal in the re-election of the Howard government in 2001.

However the recent volatility in Western democracies has torn up the rulebook, most notably the widely unforeseen pro-Brexit vote and the Trump juggernaut.

Even in the UK now analysts have been shocked by the stunning comeback of Labour under the hard-left firebrand Corbyn, who was 20 points down at the start of the campaign and widely considered unelectable yet could now be within striking distance of a hung parliament or shock victory in a minority government.

However, despite the notorious unpredictability of the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system, most pundits are still predicting a Conservative win after polls close this morning Australian time.