Until the great Tory cull of July 2024, I worked in Parliament for some two years as a Parliamentary Assistant to Rt Hon Steve Baker MP. The lion’s share of my working life was dedicated to helping my MP comb through and action the amazingly high quantity of correspondence that came in everyday, and making sure it all got to the right places.
Before I worked in Parliament, I had always assumed - as many do - that writing to your Member of Parliament was an essentially fruitless endeavour. Perhaps, I assumed, they may read my correspondence and, if I was really lucky, I might even get a response. But I thought of the act as fundamentally performative: I was unlikely to change my MP’s mind on just about anything in a drowning sea of constituent voices, so what was the point?
As it turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Most MPs spend an impressive amount of their time listening attentively to the views of their constituents, and even those who don’t usually employ several people who do on their behalf. Either way, this can have a massive effect: the declared preponderance of local opinion can have a profound influence on the thinking, behaviour, and legislative activity of an MP.