Welcome to the MrBeastification of British politics: the latest trick up Nigel Farage's sleeve | Kirsty Major

‘Nigel Farage’s obsession with drilling in the North Sea would only keep us locked into volatile energy markets.’ Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters View image in fullscreen ‘Nigel Farage’s obsession with drilling in the North Sea would only keep us locked into volatile energy markets.’ Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters Welcome to the MrBeastification of British politics: the latest trick up Nigel Farage’s sleeve Kirsty Major The Reform UK leader’s energy bill giveaway certainly grabs our attention – but it’s a distraction from the real winners and losers You can already imagine the video. A man stands in the middle of a suburban English street holding a wad of cash in his hands. Grinning at the camera he says: “I’m about to pay this entire street’s energy bills.” Cut to gliding drone footage of the neighbourhood. The man knocks on a front door and a bewildered looking woman answers in a fleecy dressing gown. “Congratulations, Carol. You’ve saved more than £1,000 this year!” High-energy electronic music swells to a crescendo as she gives him a hug. Then, a shot of the next neighbour receiving his prize, and another, and another, as a tally at the bottom right of the screen shows the total cash sum rising. Finally, the entire community is out on the street waving their hands with joy. This is almost certainly the kind of content we’ll be treated to when Reform UK’s energy bill lottery is over. The party announced the “Nigel cut my bills” competition last month: for the price of your personal data – voting history, name, phone number and email – you can win the chance of Farage popping by to pay the energy bills for you and your neighbours for an entire year. Concerns have been expressed about data collection , but that is not what I’m worried about. I personally find it hard to be exercised by alleged data compliance breaches. No, I am concerned about what such a stunt represents: the MrBeastification of British politics. The don of YouTube, MrBeast is famous for posting stunts of epic proportions to the joy of preteens around the world. One sub-genre of his videos involves him handing out huge sums of cash to unsuspecting individuals, such as the time he handed $10,000 to a homeless man in North Carolina begging passing cars for money. MrBeast, real name James Donaldson, is insanely popular. His most watched video has 915m views; that’s more than the entire population of Europe. View image in fullscreen MrBeast: ‘His most watched video has 915m views; that’s more than the entire population of Europe.’ Reform understands that politics is increasingly playing out online and, in that space, emotions matter . In order to grab people’s attention and, in turn, support, it needs to make voters angry (over small boats) and also excited about what it has to offer. Its stunt uses the same elements found in MrBeast videos: it’s unexpected, the sums of cash are huge, and the randomness of it all makes you excited to think that it could just be you. The