Project date: 21 June 2024
Problem Addressed
In the run up to the 2024 general election many Tory MPs sought to distance themselves from their government in reaction to the unpopularity of the Conservative Party’s brand at the time. The mystified nature of parliamentary process facilitated this, allowing MPs who supported and voted for every piece of government legislation to misleadingly portray themselves as more removed from their government than they in fact were.
This tool was developed by Campaign Labbers Mel, Leo and Curtis in response to this phenomenon and was about ensuring that MPs could not escape accountability for their voting record whilst giving campaigners and citizens alike immediate access to the information they cared about the most.
Approach & Implementation
Users input their postcode:
And the tool then returned the voting record of the incumbent MP on a range of issues where progressives enjoyed the popular position and salience was high:
The tool then used progressive framing to ‘score’ each vote on the graphic. Encompassing a diverse array of votes, the MP scorecard contained more information than even the longest doorstep conversations, and conveyed that information to voters instantly. When it comes to holding MPs accountable, a picture really can be worth a thousand words.
Evidence & Evaluation
Unfortunately, the sudden nature of the snap election meant the tool could not be deployed until a week before polling day, giving it a very limited window for use by campaigners. Still, we believe that providing campaigners with access to information and data they would otherwise lack is a powerful use-case of political technology. Our hope is that this tool can serve as a concrete example of what this looks like in practice, while also providing open-source code that future progressive campaign teams can adapt and expand upon for upcoming elections.
Resource
Code repository: https://github.com/CampaignLab/mpscorecard
Contact: [email protected]
7 May 2025