01 Sep 2023
Decision-makers are more likely to act if they feel pressure from lots of constituents. Having a high number of signatures on your petition, alongside public-facing campaigning like local media coverage, will help you make the case to your MP or other decision-makers that they need to listen to your campaign demands. The November Day of Action is an ideal opportunity to hand in your petition to your local MP.
Growing your petition
Before you hand in your petition, you need to get as many signatures as possible. We have lots of tips for growing your petition numbers.
Engaging with your MP
It’s best to deliver your petition by meeting your MP in person. This gives you the chance to talk about the Warm Homes campaign and allows you to do a petition hand-in with local partners too. This is where the Day of Action comes in.
Invite your MP to your event on Saturday 18 November and hand in your petition then. Tell your MP what the petition demands are and ask if they’ll commit to them. As per our GDPR guidance below, it's best practice to share petition signatures with your MP via email so that you can password protect them. But you can still hand them a physical symbol of the names, like a box, to represent the number of signatures you've gathered. Make sure there are as many people as possible at the hand-in to demonstrate public support and take a photo. Find out more about how to engage your MP at your community event.
If your MP can’t make the time to meet in person, you can send the petition by email. If you've set up your petition on Action Network, you'll be able to email the petition directly to your MP on Action Network (see the section below on "Downloading and handing in your petition"). If you've set up your petition in a different way, you may need to send the petition as a password-protected email attachment. You may also want to tell people that your MP wasn’t willing to meet as this’ll help increase the pressure on them. For example, you could share your petition demands and the number of signatures on social media or with the local press.
If you’re not ready to hand in your petition by the Day of Action, don’t worry. There’ll be other opportunities to do this ahead of the next general election. The Day of Action is still a valuable opportunity to engage your MP in the campaign and start the conversation.
Downloading and handing in your petition
If you've used Action Network, handing in your petition should be very straightforward. Watch the following video for a quick and easy way to download your petition.
We'd recommend the above method, but if for whatever reason you want to remove some signatures before you hand in your petition (for example because of duplicates), you can use the longer method outlined in the following video.
If your group has any questions, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Celebrating your win
If your MP commits to your petition demands, be sure to let everyone know. Share your campaign success on social media, in the local media and with your mailing list. Make sure your MP shares their commitment publicly too, from their social media to their website. And give yourselves time to celebrate. Campaigning for change takes a lot of work, and you deserve to pause for breath after your amazing success.
Top tips
Make the petition hand-in as public-facing as possible. Invite as many local people as you can to your hand-in, including journalists interested in compiling local stories. You want to make the hand-in as interesting as possible: this is where the community quilt comes in handy. But you can also explore other creative ways to be seen and heard by your MP, like taking a photo outside their office with placards.
Make the most of your meeting. Nervous about meeting your MP? Find out how to make the most of your meeting.
Follow GDPR. Before handing in your petition, make sure that everyone representing the group is aware of the most recent data compliance requirements, and that forms with an up-to-date data protection statement are used to capture both petition data and individuals' consent. You should only share the bare minimum amount of information about your petition signatures with your MP. Signees' names and postcodes (to prove they're in your MP's constituency) should be sufficient. It's a good idea to password protect these details when handing in the petition, and to provide the password in a separate email or envelope if it's a physical hand in. See more info on GDPR.
Be persistent. Your MP may not accept your petition demands when you first ask. Don’t worry. Campaigning is all about patience and persistence. Keep talking about warm homes through the local press and social media so they can publicly feel the heat. You may also get local interest from other community groups through local media work. Be sure to prioritise building these partnerships at the local level so we can all stand with communities facing fuel poverty.
Over the coming months, and in the lead-up to the general election, we’ll continue to collectively put pressure on politicians so that whoever wins the next election will deliver on warm homes.
