Election buzz: Who topped Google #GE2015 search trends?

7 May, 2015 16:49 / Updated 9 years ago

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband was the most-Googled politician in the run-up to the UK general election, an advertising firm has found.

Advertising tech firm Captify, which is based in London, found that while 31 percent of online searches were about Ed Miliband, only 18 percent were about Conservative leader and serving Prime Minister David Cameron.

“Searches mean interest, not intent to vote,” Captify COO Vincent Potier pointed out. “We’re no politicians or pollsters, but this one was surprising.”

UKIP leader Nigel Farage came in second place with 22 percent of searches.

Ed Miliband has generated a lot of buzz, notably with ‘Milifandom’ – initially a tween spoof that became something of an unlikely PR victory – but also through attacks by his opponents.

The main issues that concern British voters are health care, immigration and Europe, education, welfare, the economy, the environment and housing. Captify linked these issues to searches in connection with the main UK parties.

In contrast to the result for individual leaders, the Conservative Party is the most searched-for political party on 46 percent, followed by Labour with 32 percent, UKIP 12 percent, Lib Dems 8 percent and the Green Party with 2 percent.