We’ve launched a new AI tool to help everyone write to their MP

As a charity that supports disadvantaged workers, we see every day that migrant workers are the first to be scapegoated. Many politicians seem to have forgotten that a significant proportion of their constituents were born overseas, and that migrants make up as much as 16% of people in the UK, and 21% of working people.

As the government seeks to appease the views of a vocal minority with increasingly hostile immigration policies, the stakes of speaking up have never been higher.

Just days after we wrote this post, our client Fernando Fontoura was wrongly detained for 29 days as part of an overzealous government crackdown on illegal working. Our advisers helped Fernando obtain settled status, and put an end to his ordeal. 

But many more people are facing injustices alone. We launched this tool to empower them to speak up, get their Member of Parliament to listen, and change the root causes of injustice for good.

How the AI-powered Write to your MP tool works

The tool prompts users to answer three questions that lay the foundations of every good letter to a parliamentarian: what is your story, what went wrong, and how you would like the MP to help. We use prompts to encourage users to ask for things that are achievable, such as raising awareness, or calling for policy change.

The tool then uses AI to turn these answers into a personalised letter to the user’s local MP, which the user can edit, download, and send from their email address.

We thought very carefully about this project, and how to ensure the AI does not erode the authenticity of people’s stories. This is why everything starts with the user’s personal experience.

The AI is instructed to fix any grammatical errors, and turn the user’s story into a document that meets the conventions of a formal letter. But the background, the problems, and the calls for change, are those of the real people who use our website.

Above all else, we wanted to ensure that users take ownership of their letters. Other websites make it so easy to send a pre-written email or template to an MP, it feels almost like it could be sent by accident. Writing to an MP is a vital form of political expression, and we think it shouldn’t read like spam. 

This is why our tool prompts users to edit the letter, and asks them to download and send it from their email address. It would be all too easy for our website to send the letter in their name, at the click of a button. But we chose not to do this, to ensure that when someone contacts their MP, they really mean it.  

This tool matters more than ever

This tool is not just a technical project. It is about justice and inclusivity. There is a lot at stake if migrants and other vulnerable workers can’t get MPs to listen to their concerns.

In just one example, proposals to double the route to settlement have been met with widespread anxiety, particularly given the lack of clarity over whether they will be applied retroactively.

When MPs met to debate two petitions against the changes, many described being contacted by droves of constituents, and dutifully put their views to the Home Office. 

There are also fears that the government’s agenda to make work pay will be watered down, and key reforms around protection from unfair dismissal or action against false self-employment will be forgotten. 

We want to hear from you

We have built this tool to empower everyone to speak out against injustice. This includes people who may not have English as their first language, or lack confidence expressing themselves in text.

We would like you to use it and tell us what you think. We are interested in your experience with the tool itself because, as with every new project, there will almost certainly be things we can improve.

Most of all, we’d like to hear if your MP listened. We hope this tool will enable people who may otherwise feel sidelined to speak truth to those in power.