How to Contact Your MP

Finding your MP

If you do not know who your MP is, go to www.theyworkforyou.com and type in your postcode. You can email your MP directly from that website if you wish, though we would suggest you type their name into a search engine and find out from their own website how they suggest contacting them. They may have a specific email address or constituency office on their websites, or you can write to them at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Letters, emails and surgeries

Constituents’ letters are the primary method through which MPs learn about issues that are important to their electorate. Letters from individual constituents and voters are powerful.

When contacting your MP, a short, handwritten or printed and signed letter is most effective; emails also highlight an issue and may be more convenient, but a letter is preferable. If you can get to a constituency surgery, even better! One ex MP has told us that he thought of a standard letter generated by a campaign as ‘one point’, a personally written individual letter as ‘10 points’ and a personal visit to a surgery as ‘100 points’.

Letter-writing tips

• Make your letter clear and concise, and legible if handwritten. Try to boil down your message or concerns into a few critical points ­ if it helps, think what 3 things could you say if you had 30 seconds in a lift to explain the issue. If you want to send a lot of detail about a site then we recommend you append it rather than making the letter lengthy.
• We recommend we ask your MP to do something specific ­ what is it you want from their involvement? They are often happy to raise an issue on policies with the relevant minister and report back to you any response they get. Or in some cases lend their support to a fundraising campaign, particularly if you are aiming to improve your local community in some way. Or an MP’s interest in a planning issue can help ensure that all sides of a debate are heard fairly before a decision is made.
• If your campaign has a lot of local support they may well want to know more, so invite them to a meeting or to see the site.
• If you are holding an event which you can get the press along to, let the MP know, it may encourage them to attend.

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