We Are The 52% began as a Facebook page in November 2017. The page now has 64,000 followers and posts video clips, memes and links to articles promoting a clean break from the EU. According to the standard transparency information now included on Facebook pages, there are four people in the UK with management privileges, although Dickinson is the only one named. There is also a website, which has little on it apart from a Paypal donations widget and a form to email the prime minister to urge her to leave the EU’s customs union, and a Twitter account which began in September.



Dickinson is described on the website as the editor. It’s not clear when she became associated with We Are The 52%. A cached version of the website dating to September 5, accessed through a search of the Wayback Machine, an internet archive, did not mention Dickinson or anyone else, suggesting that she became involved after that date.

Dickinson is an Oxford University history graduate who runs a small social media and political communications consultancy. She worked on the official Vote Leave campaign in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, and has been a campaign manager for the Conservative party. Her LinkedIn profile includes an endorsement from Alun Cairns, the secretary of state for Wales, who described Dickinson as “a very committed and hard working campaigner”.

Last week, Dickinson came under fire on Twitter for posting a link to a video clip of a burning church, saying: “In response to New Zealand mosque attacks, Islamists have burned down a Christian church in Pakistan. Why is this not being shown on BBC News?” It was retweeted thousands of times. In fact, the footage showed an attack on a church in Egypt in 2013 and had nothing to do with the killings in Christchurch, according to an analysis by the fact-checking website Full Fact.



Dickinson was criticised for spreading false claims. Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative chairwoman and cabinet minister, complained about Dickinson’s tweet to the party’s current chairman Brandon Lewis. Dickinson has since deleted the tweet. “I took it down as soon as I realised it was an old video,” she told BuzzFeed News.

In mid-December, We Are The 52% began paying for ads on Facebook promoting a hard Brexit. Its messages appear to chime closely with those of the ERG and Leave Means Leave, the cross-party campaign of which Nigel Farage is vice-chairman. As of last week, it had sent 265 ads, according to Facebook’s data. Many of those ads direct users to We Are The 52%’s website where they’re asked to fill in their email address to send a message to May urging her to keep her promise to withdraw from the customs union.

Similarities between We Are The 52% and Britain’s Future extend beyond their firm desire for a no-deal Brexit.

The two entities appear to have followed a similar path: They began as Facebook pages on November 28, 2017, and later added websites. Both websites were registered through GoDaddy using a privacy service to shield the identity of the domain’s owner.