MP’s surgeries get an upgrade

Josh Dell | 26th November 2020 | Comment, Magazine, Policy & Think Tanks, Politics

Virtual MP's surgeries are less strenuous and less time-consuming than their face-to-face equivalents. Josh Dell hails the benefits of their digitisation

While TV viewers of the BBC Parliament Channel and PMQs have become accustomed to the site of a half empty chamber, away from Westminster another traditional element of political life is even emptier: the in-person constituency surgery.

But will the MP’s surgery – at least as MPs have known it for over 50 years – survive Covid? It’s one of the questions widely being asked on MP WhatsApp groups.

New methods for maintaining contact with constituents have had to be adopted, whether they be digitizing the process or engaging with student constituents through Zoom. The latter has been integral to the work of The Politics Project, an organisation I used to work for, that has been connecting MPs with the young people they represent since 2017. Previously, dividing one’s time between constituency and Westminster was effectively mandatory. But now, many MPs are entirely constituency-based, with many still dialling into Westminster via video link.

As MPs can tune into parliament by video link so too can they hold their constituency surgeries. The transition for hundreds of MPs to video surgeries has made constituent engagement a considerably swifter process. But will this be a lasting change?

The crisis has accelerated change that was already in the works. During a debate discussing modernising the House of Commons’ practices in 2000, Conservative MP Eric Forth lambasted a growing …

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