Latest election news: Farage on the defensive after his supporters are filmed making racist, murderous and homophobic comments

The Reform Party and Labor Party buy newspaper advertising – but will readers recognise that they are being paid for ads?

By Megan Harwood-Baynes, digital investigations journalist

The Reform Party and Labor have bought advertising space on two major national news sites in a bid to influence voters in the days before the general election.

When you look at MailOnline, Nigel Farage’s stern face beams from both the main banner and on the left of the site.

Their manifesto – which they call their “contract” with the public – is plastered on the side of the news site.

Meanwhile, Labor, perhaps in a bid to emulate the 1992 front page ‘It’s the Sun that didn’t win’, plastered its advert all over the Sun online.

With a countdown to July 4, they also lament “14 years of conservative chaos.”

Above all, none of these newspapers openly supported a candidate, although a regular reader would be forgiven for not noticing this nuance.

In 1992, the Sun claimed victory for the Conservative Party, having openly campaigned to lure voters away from the then Labor leader Neil Kinnock.

It is regularly cited as demonstrating the influence that the tabloid press can have on politicians and elections.

So far, the Daily Telegraph has come out in favor of the Conservatives, while the Guardian, Daily Mirror, Economist, New Statesman and Daily Record have all supported Labour.

The Times, the Sun and the Daily Mail did not endorse anyone, and the Daily Star took the unusual (but perhaps unsurprising) approach of backing Count Binface, calling him “the most sane politician in Britain”.

And although the Mirror has previously endorsed Labour, and appears at first glance to be plastered with party adverts, the red banners promising ‘change’ are actually those of the Nespresso coffee brand.

Sky News examined the advert as part of the Online Election Project – a Sky News initiative to cover campaigning online, led by Tom Cheshire, online campaign correspondent.

We also found that one party dominates social media, but it is not the one that spends the most.

Reform UK dominated, with its page growing by more than 32,000 followers during the campaign.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives saw only 596 new supporters.

Sixteen of the twenty most popular posts were also by Mr Farage.

And for some conservatives, this brand was considered so bad that they abandoned it altogether.