The Houses of Parliament building in Westminster, London, UK. Picture: Nigel J Harris/Shutterstock
Social media has overtaken newsbrands as the primary source of news for MPs, according to a new survey conducted by Yougov.
Some 83% of a representative sample of 105 MPs cited social media as their primary source, up from 61% at the start of 2025.
This means social media overtook news websites (on 77%) for the first time.
But 96% of MPs still said they visit newspaper websites at least once a week, with 89% visiting daily and 60% visiting multiple times a day.
Among national newspaper websites, The Guardian (read by 67% of MPs) has risen by seven percentage points in a year to overtake The Times (on 63%).
This increase for The Guardian came across all parties although it remains read much more widely among Labour and Lib Dem MPs (both 80%) versus 23% of Conservatives.
The strongest growth was at The Telegraph, up from 19% to 30% readership in a year, followed by the Financial Times (rising from 35% to 45%).
There was also growth at the Mirror (up from 19% to 27%) and the Daily Mail (up from 20% to 24%) suggesting MPs are reading across the political spectrum.
Among specialist political brands, Politico dominates with 59% readership among MPs (up six percentage points from last year). Politico skews left in its readership, reaching 68% of Labour MPs and 33% of Conservatives.
Politico’s daily London Playbook newsletter was read by 48% of MPs surveyed (up from 43%).
Overall 70% of MPs subscribe to at least one political newsletter – up from 61% last year.
But the report noted: “However, the FT has slipped from 14% to 10%, and the New Statesman Morning Call has fallen from 16% to 10% – suggesting that while the overall newsletter market is growing, some individual titles are losing ground as competition increases.”
The survey was carried out on behalf of corporate affairs consultancy 5654 & Company and political influence media buying agency MessageSpace.
It also asked about podcasts, which it described as a polarising format by generation compared to other information sources.
Some 62% of MPs listen to podcasts at least weekly (with 14% listening more than once a day and a further 18% listening daily) but the remaining 38% “rarely or never engage with the format – the highest non-engagement rate of any channel measured”.
But they were nonetheless classed as a mainstream news channel rather than a niche one with 46% of MPs citing podcasts as a source of news.
The Rest Is Politics is the most popular news podcast among MPs at 31% listenership (43% of Labour MPs) followed by The News Agents (29%, also Labour leaning on 39%), Sky News political editor Beth Rigby’s Electoral Dysfunction (15%), Politics At Sam and Anne’s from Sky News and Politico (15%) and The New Statesman Podcast (14%, having grown from 9% in a year).
The general election in 2024 was described as “the first podcast election” due to an explosion in wider listenership to political shows.
Among the social media platforms, Whatsapp and Facebook were both used by more than 80% of MPs weekly (82% and 81% respectively) followed by Instagram (57%) meaning the top three are all owned by Meta.
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