Who is the whizz behind the latest “stop the boats” scheme which even Suella Braverman reportedly described as “frivolous”? It has emerged that the Home Office will pay TikTok influencers in countries like Albania, Iraq and Egypt to urge their followers not to come to the UK illegally. The idea originally came from Rishi Sunak’s social media guru Cass Horowitz, according to The Times.
The 33-year-old son of children’s author Anthony Horowitz, he has been touted as the brains behind “Brand Rishi” which went brilliantly for a while — remember those slick promo videos and the days of “Dishy Rishi”?
Horowitz was educated at £45,000 a year Marlborough College, and went on to set up a creative agency with his brother aged 25. He started as Sunak’s special adviser in 2020, before becoming No10’s head of strategic communications when Sunak became Prime Minister. But will his latest plan be a misfire?
The Home Office has set aside more than £500,000 for their new TikTok scheme and contracted the Multicultural Marketing Consultancy to find potential influencers. The i newspaper reached out to one of the names they suggested, an Albanian TikToker called Fabio Daja. “OMG…What the actual f**k. I haven’t been contacted by any government,” he said. Each influencer could be paid up to £5,000 for posting videos, but Daja said he would decline the offer if asked to take part. “I find it a very sensitive issue when it comes to refugees trying to cross the border”.
Critics have described the scheme as a waste of taxpayers’ money that will have “zero impact”. Maybe time to think twice on this one?
