This article was originally published on Policy Leeds blog
It can feel daunting to think about engaging with politicians when politics too often feels like a game with little connection to everyday life. Yet political actors are the ones with the power to establish priorities and decide policy, and as such form a key audience for policy engagement. At recent workshop by the Institute for Government (IfG) Academy team for the University of Leeds, we explored this political dimension of policy making. Understanding the political world that MPs inhabit, and how that impacts on what they do, can transform how you engage with MPs and other political actors.
Why engage with politicians?
Many factors influence policy making. While the newspapers may be dominated by one or two policy stories, behind the scenes the government is pursuing multiple policies, resolving different viewpoints within departments, and feeding in the different perspectives of their many stakeholders. Evidence and academic knowledge form part of this process. But it’s also important to understand how they need to balance that against other factors. Government has a finite supply of time, money and attention.
While it is government ministers that take key policy decisions, they are informed and influenced by their parties and individual MPs. MPs have access to broad networks and convening power and profile which they can use to keep issues in the public eye and influence debates. They are also often interested in evidence and independent viewpoints to inform their role in holding government to account. Engaging with MPs can therefore pay real dividends for academics looking to inform policy debates and build alliances with other interested groups.
What do MPs do once they are elected?
In the UK, out of the 650 MPs elected only 109 are appointed as paid Ministers to form (along with some unpaid colleagues) the executive Government.
This means that most MPs, even within the majority party, are not directly members of the Government. Instead, they spend their time on constituency casework, parliamentary business, and trying to influence Government and hold it to account.
Non-governmental MPs do have some options to help them extend their influence. They can sit on Select Committees and Public Bill Committees, and ask questions to Ministers in Parliament, scrutinising the Government and pressuring them to act. MPs can also get involved in All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), working together to campaign on issues.
However, the biggest power that all MPs have is that they can vote. While one MP’s vote may be unlikely to sway a debate, MPs can come together on certain issues to influence the shape of legislation.
Doing the Parliamentary maths
The Government is selected from the party (or parties) which can command a majority in the House of Commons. But, even with a huge majority, passing legislation is not guaranteed – if enough MPs decide to vote against the government they can defeat it, or at least force or persuade the government to change course.
Ministers, and others with roles in Government, are required to vote with the Government or, by convention, resign. This is known as the “payroll vote” and accounts for about 150 votes. The same is not true of the other MPs, known as backbenchers. Parties therefore appoint some of their MPs as whips to communicate with their backbench MPs and encourage them to vote with the Government.
How do MPs decide how to vote?
All MPs get to vote, but deciding what to vote is not necessarily as easy as it appears.
Unless they have a strong reason, most MPs will vote with their party line even if they personally disagree. Party loyalty is a powerful motivator. MPs want to support their party, especially when their party is in government. But MPs also stand a much better chance of election (or re-election) if they have the party behind them, and MPs will have been active party members previously in order to have got noticed for selection.
Whips, in contrast to their reputation as scheming manipulators, tend to be popular party members with great connections, and their first tactic will generally be friendly persuasion. However, they do have a few more tricks up their sleeves – proffering political support or holding up the promise of a government job as a reward for loyalty. The ultimate sanction is the threat of “removing the whip” – which is to remove an MP from the party. Though they remain an MP, if the whip isn’t restored they would have to stand as an independent or for a different party at future elections. Essentially, vote the wrong way and you can lose your job.
However, whips don’t have it all their own way – if MPs band together with others to threaten to vote against the government as a bloc the government may have no choice but to make concessions to a bill to ensure it will pass.
MPs, then, must balance the party line with their own values and the views of their constituents. In our training session, participants’ role-played being MPs deciding how to vote on an issue where constituency interests were contrary to the party line. In the final vote, the majority abstained as they didn’t feel they had sufficient information to make a sensible decision. The reality is that MPs are often acting with imperfect information and under conflicting pressures, and regular abstentions will not impress the whips. Difficult decisions must therefore be made.
In addition keeping an eye on the party line and their constituencies, MPs will also want to understand the issues being debated to inform their own position.
What evidence do MPs have access to?
In contrast with how much they have to do, MPs are under-resourced in terms of support. While they will have case workers and parliamentary office staff to help them, these are generally poorly paid positions that attract bright but often relatively inexperienced staff. With the volume of constituency work and keeping up with all the debates and legislation in progress, MPs and their staff can do with all the help they can get.
There are also a number of Parliamentary routes that supply MPs with evidence to inform their work. The Commons Library and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) provide nonpartisan research briefings related to upcoming Parliamentary business and are an incredible resource for MPs. Select Committees provide an opportunity for MPs to receive written and oral evidence in relation to the area of inquiry. APPGs provide another route for MPs to collect evidence they can use to inform their work.
MPs will also engage with a wide number of groups as part of their activities, from community groups to lobbyists, activists to business associations. This helps them hear a large number of viewpoints so they understand the support for different approaches.
What does this mean for engaging with MPs?
Whether you like it or not, in our democracy politics is how we negotiate between different values – who wins and who loses.
MPs have an incredibly complex and busy job with limited support. They need to keep abreast of party politics and understand the views of constituents and UK electorate – be they citizens or businesses, lobby or campaign groups. Similarly, they need to understand the diverse and often very technical issues being debated. There is limited training to allow new MPs to get up to speed with their role (although the Institute for Government Academy training for Parliamentarians does provide some) and the intense pressure has impacts on MPs mental health (reported in the Guardian).
All of this has implications for how researchers look to engage with MPs:
- Keep an eye on the political landscape: This will help you to spot opportunities where your research evidence can make a difference and be realistic about what can be achieved.
- Think about the ‘who, what, when and how’ of engagement: Different MPs have their own motivations, interests, and maybe more or less willing to ‘rock the boat’ – all of this can inform who you wish to approach. They are also incredibly busy so approaches need to be relevant, timely, accessible and succinct.
- Consider engaging with the structures and ecosystem around MPs: Think about the support MPs are already tapped into, such as POST or Parliamentary Libraries, or maybe groups in their constituency. Political party conferences can act as bit of a microcosm of the bigger ecosystem and may help you see where you can join forces.
Even if you are not looking to engage with political actors yourself, understanding the politics behind policymaking will help with your research-policy engagement – after all, the agenda debated and set within the political arena will directly impact on what legislation is passed and how national policy developed.
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This blog is based on the discussion within the ‘Political dimensions of policy making’ workshop run by Dr Catherine Haddon and Katie Thorpe of the Institute for Government Academy for the University of Leeds on 1 May 2024. The IfG Academy brings together their expertise on government to provide practical training and support for Ministers, Parliamentarian, and researchers. Our thanks to all the participants for their contributions to the conversation.
Find more information on policy collaborations from across University of Leeds on the Policy Leeds website. If you would like to keep in touch with our work please connect with us on LinkedIn, find us on X (formerly Twitter), or you can email us at policyleeds@leeds.ac.uk
