Lobbying is when an individual or a group of people tries to persuade someone in Parliament to support a particular policy or campaign. Anyone can lobby their MP, which makes it one of the most accessible ways to help the environment, either on a local or national scale.

How do I lobby my MP?

You can lobby your MP in a number of ways, and it doesn’t have to be in person. But before you think about getting stuck in, you’ll need to find out who your MP is. If you don’t already know, you can use the TheyWorkForYou website to find your MP.

Doing some research on your MP's interests will be a great advantage when it comes to speaking or writing to them. If you have something in common, it’s a great conversation starter and will make it easier to build trust; if you’re starting from square-one, it means you’ll have to approach them from a very different angle.

Lobbying your MP via letter or email

If you don’t feel confident enough to meet your MP face-to-face, you can always send them a letter or an email. You can email your MP directly through TheyWorkForYou, or you can find their postal address on the UK Parliament website.

There are lots of template letters relating to the climate and nature crises online, but sending a personal letter has much more impact. Writing from a personal perspective means you can really convey your passion for an issue and include real-world stories about how an issue has affected you, somebody you know or your local community as a whole. Sharing your story is more likely to appeal to an MP, whose main concern is their constituents.

As well as personal anecdotes, make sure that your letter has a clear and actionable ask. Do you want your MP to back strong environmental laws in Parliament? Do you want them to oppose a new road-building project locally?

To help your letter or email stand out:

• Introduce yourself and say where you live and work.
• Clearly outline your concerns – your MP may be unaware of the issues.
• If you can, give examples of how you are personally affected.
• Provide information or research to back up your case.
• Include your address so your MP can see that you live in their constituency.
• Ask your MP to stay in contact with you and relay any responses from other MPs or the Secretary of State.

Lobbying your MP via social media

Most MPs are on social media these days but it isn’t always the best place to get their attention – imagine how many tweets and direct messages they receive each day.

The best way to lobby an MP on social media is to simply tag them into your updates about the environmental issues you’re concerned about (keeping the tweet respectful). If you’d like to meet your MP or speak to them in-depth, the most effective first point of contact is a letter, an email or, even better, a phone call.

Lobbying your MP in-person

Meeting your MP in person can feel really daunting, but if you go prepared and speak to them from the heart, you’ll find them very approachable and receptive. They're human, just like you, and their job is to represent you in Parliament.

To set up a meeting, you’ll need to contact your MP or the people who work in their constituency office (find their details on the UK Parliament website). You could also meet them during one of their constituency surgeries, which they hold at least once a month.

When you ask for a meeting, explain what you want to meet your MP about and then offer some dates and times. Remember that MPs have full diaries, so you may have to be flexible on these.

When you get to the meeting itself, thank your MP for meeting you and take a similar approach to if you were writing them a letter. The key is to share a personal story that conveys your passion for, and the importance of the issue you’re campaigning about – show them how much the natural environment in your area matters. You could even present them with a petition to show the strength of feeling in the local community.

Make sure you also have some clear things to ask your MP to do for you, but also ask them what they think they can do to help. Before you leave, thank them for their time and build that relationship of mutual respect. This will help in the future if you’d like to speak to them again.

We hope this has helped you feel more prepared to lobby your MP about environmental issues, but if you need further advice, we’re on-hand with more tips to build your confidence.

More lobbying tips

What if you don't hear back from your MP?

We know how frustrating and disheartening it is when your MP doesn’t seem to listen, repeatedly sends stock responses, or simply doesn’t respond to you at all. While it can feel futile, we believe it is absolutely vital constituents continue to make their concerns known about issues they care strongly about. MPs are publicly elected, and are obligated to listen to you, and respond to your concerns.

If everyone stops contacting their MP because they don’t think they’ll listen, the MP won’t hear the valid concerns of their constituents. They will likely start to feel the issue is no longer facing opposition. It is important to keep up the pressure to make sure an MP knows when they don’t have constituent backing.

The more MPs that find themselves in this position, the more likely they are to question the government’s position. We do see examples where MPs who were strongly opposed to certain developments or issues have done complete u-turns due to consistent engagement from their constituents.

At the same time, showing the people around you, in person or on social media, that you oppose an issue and are contacting your MP about it has a huge impact. Seeing that you’ve made the effort often encourages those around you to do the same, and feel reassured that they’re not alone.

Here are a couple of alternatives that would be good to try instead:

Spread the word

Spread the word about your environmental concerns on social media - we have plenty of campaigns that you can share and lots of information you can repost from our Facebook, Instagram and X profiles.

Again, as mentioned earlier, you can always tag your MP in these and politely raise the issue.

Consider craftivism

In October 2023 we held a parliamentary reception for North West MPs alongside Cheshire and Cumbria Wildlife Trust. We asked our social media followers to help us make an impact by sending us their knitted nature creatures so that MPs could take away something made by locals that really care about nature and want to put wildlife on the political agenda.

Our callout was incredibly successful - we only needed 40 and we got around 150 - see below! Why not consider making your own and mailing it to your MP with a letter? You may be more successful in getting their attention.