Labour is already dominating the online general election campaign | Matthew McGregor

Starmer's party was quicker out of the digital gate, with slicker, more engaging content than the Tory offering

The video opens with an old clip of Cilla Black singing her classic Surprise, Surprise!'. The caption reads POV: Rishi Sunak turns up at your 18th birthday to send you to war."

This appeared on Labour's TikTok account the day after the Conservatives launched their national service policy. It fitted perfectly with TikTok's meme-heavy, wry and sarcastic culture and has been watched 4.5 million times. The video racked up almost 700,000 likes, more than double the likes on all the Tories' TikToks put together.