Yahoo News Boris Johnson has posted 'get Brexit done' over 350 times on social media since start of election campaign
A leading political sociologist has said he has never seen anything like it after a count showed that Boris Johnson has peddled his “get Brexit done” slogan an extraordinary 354 times on social media during the general election campaign.
As of 12.30pm on Tuesday, Yahoo News UK had counted the phrase in 140 Twitter posts, 165 on Facebook and 49 on Instagram since the campaign officially began on 6 November. Collectively, the pages have 2.4 million followers.
The count included two “get Brexit done” tweets in the space of 21 minutes just after midday.
Professor Fisher, from the University of Oxford, said after being told of the figures: “I have never seen anything like this.
“There are interesting questions as to whether the style of campaigning is changing. But it’s such an extraordinary election that it’s hardly surprising.”
Prof Fisher, an associate professor in political sociology at the university, specialises in voting behaviour and said the concept behind “get Brexit done” is popular among voters.
His previous research, published for YouGov last month, showed 52% of 681 supporters of Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal did so because it “gets Brexit done”.
He told Yahoo News UK on Tuesday: “If you blur those lines between wanting this ‘mess’ to be over and the Brexit deal, you have a much more popular slogan.
“So I’m not surprised [at the repetition]. The message really resonates with people who support the deal and even with people who don’t support it, but are frustrated with the Brexit process.”
In the 2017 election, then-PM Theresa May suffered a huge backlash with her repetition of her “strong and stable” campaign slogan.
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It is something Mr Johnson has apparently avoided, and Prof Fisher added: “I don’t know how he’s managed to not sound like a repetitive drone, but he’s been able to present the message in popular ways, saying things like “oven-ready”. With a touch of humour, and variety, he’s been able to deliver the message.
“He also campaigns on popular issues like more police and more hospitals, so it means he’s not been relentlessly banging on about the same thing.”
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