Tories pursuing ‘ostrich strategy’ on Facebook campaign

Party is focusing on 80 seats it came closest to losing in last election and 20 seats it came closest to winning

The Conservative party is pursuing an “ostrich strategy” on Facebook, spending almost all of its ad budget since the beginning of the year in constituencies that were once marginal but are now looking more like surefire losses, Guardian analysis shows.

The strategy is known within the party as the “80/20” approach, in which it focuses all its spending on the 80 seats it came closest to losing in 2019 and the 20 seats it came closest to winning.