Trust between citizens and their elected representatives is eroding. Just 4% of the public believe politicians act in the country’s best interests.¹ As that trust falls, so does people’s willingness to engage constructively with politics at all. Demos’ mission is to upgrade democracy by rebuilding the relationships throughout the system and, in a system of representative democracy, arguably none of those relationships is more important than that between an MP and their constituents.
This report evaluates a new model of MP-constituent engagement, designed and facilitated by Demos and piloted in two constituencies: South Derbyshire and Weston-super-Mare. The model brought in over 30 “seed” participants, who were constituents that had never previously had contact with their MP. Across three structured sessions, participants worked alongside their MP to identify a local issue and co-create an Action Plan to address it. The model was built around five design principles: reaching beyond the usual suspects, being participatory, building reciprocity, ensuring accountability, and being pragmatic enough for MPs’ offices to deliver.
This evaluation tests how well the model lived up to each of these principles and, crucially, what impact it had on participants’ trust in their MP and in democracy more broadly.