Guide to meeting with your MP

Friends of the Earth is campaigning for the next government to write a new climate plan that meets the UK government’s pledge to reduce emissions by over two thirds by 2030.

The UK’s new climate action plan must be credible, ambitious and urgent enough to ensure the UK meets and exceeds its crucial 2030 global climate goal and legally binding national targets with deep cuts to harmful carbon emissions.

A new climate action plan must deliver long-term green jobs, secure Britain’s industries, and protect and support workers. In the meeting, you can ask your MP to help ensure the next government delivers on this.  

Below are examples of questions you could ask:

• The UK is offtrack to meet its 2030 pledge and carbon budgets. Will you support our campaign for a new climate plan that meets our climate targets while sharing the costs and benefits fairly?
• The public wants to tackle the climate crisis, but many are struggling with the cost of living. How will you encourage the government to make low-carbon options affordable and accessible to all?

If your MP made commitments on this before the election, you can ask them what plans they have now to follow through on them.
 

Millions of people are still struggling to afford to heat their homes, and the health impacts of cold, damp homes are costing the NHS tens of billions of pounds. Investing in insulation and energy efficiency would create green jobs, bring down our energy bills and cut emissions. 

We’re calling on the government to urgently publish its promised Warm Homes Plan. This plan should kickstart a nationwide, street by street insulation programme, prioritise those most impacted by cold homes, and increase funding for warm homes to £6 billion a year over the next 10 years to ensure all cold homes are insulated by 2035. Find out more about what we’re calling for.

During the meeting, it’s important to share why your community cares about this issue and bring in the perspectives of other community groups if you can. You can also share local data on cold homes with your MP by bringing along your local constituency briefing.

Here's how your MP can show support for warm homes for all:

• Raise the issue within parliament by submitting written or oral questions about the need for insulation and warm homes. They could ask one of our suggested questions, or we can help draft them one if they’d like something more specific.  
• Share support for the campaign on social media. For example, you could take a photo of them and your group holding United for Warm Homes placards to share on their social media channels. Or share this image with a message of support for urgent action on insulation.

Find out more about how you can win commitments from your MP on warm homes.

Friends of the Earth is campaigning for the UK government to pass an Environmental Rights Act. This is a law that recognises the right to a healthy environment as a human right. Enshrining the right to a healthy environment in UK law would give communities the power to hold companies and government legally accountable for polluting activities locally and for improving access to the health and wellbeing benefits of green spaces and trees.

Below are a couple of questions you could ask in the meeting to find out what action your MP will commit to ensure a healthy environment:

• What will you do to ensure that the next government lives up to the UK’s international commitments and make a healthy environment a legal right?
• It’s awful that the sewage pollution in our rivers took so long to come to light. I’m worried other big industries are taking a toll on nature too. What will your party do to ensure that businesses report their impacts on nature, and that the big polluters pay?
• What will your party do to stop any more children being harmed, or even dying, because of how toxic their local environment is?

As part of our Planet over Profit campaign we’re demanding a new UK law that’ll hold companies, banks and public bodies to account for any socially and environmentally damaging impacts caused by their activities, and ensure they are held liable when harm occurs.

This should include a new law to prevent corporations committing environmental and human rights abuses in their supply chains. We must stop deforestation globally, especially in biodiverse, carbon sinks like the Amazon and the Cerrado to protect nature and frontline communities.

During the meeting, you can also ask your MP to:

• Take a photo with one of our Planet over Profit pledge cards.
• Commit to attending parliamentary debates, events or asking questions to force corporate accountability up the agenda.
• Sign the Decision Makers Pledge to support the new law.

Find out more about our campaign to ensure the UK plays its part in global efforts to tackle the climate and nature crises.

In solidarity with our sister organisation Palestine Friends of the Earth who have suffered horrendously in the war in Gaza, with at least 5 members killed by Israeli airstrikes, we’re demanding:

• The government immediately end the provision of arms to Israel.
• The immediate reinstatement of the UN Relief and Works Agency funding as a matter of strict urgency.
• The government must employ all of the UK’s diplomatic influence to achieve a full, permanent and immediate ceasefire.  

Here's why we're taking action on Palestine.

Here's a couple of example questions you can ask your MP to find out what they’ll do:

• Will you state your support for, and pledge to do everything you can to achieve, an immediate, full and permanent ceasefire in Gaza?
• An independent UN report conducted in April stated that Israel has yet to provide any evidence for its claims that staff with the UN Relief and Works Agency were involved in the October 7 attacks. Will you commit to doing everything you can to achieve the reinstatement of UK funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a matter of urgency?
• At least five members of our sister organisation Palestine Friends of the Earth have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. In February a host of UN experts warned that arms transferred to Israel are likely to be used to violate international humanitarian law and these transfers must be ceased immediately. Will you commit to calling for a UK arms embargo on Israel and what will you do to achieve this? 
• If the arms industry is a job provider in your area you can also ask: what will you do to support local workers to transition to environmentally and socially just work?

For more detailed information and arguments you can make to your MP, take a look at our letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The climate emergency requires an active movement which ensures the voices of ordinary people voices are heard. And peaceful protest has been an important part of positive change. For example, the Suffragettes and the anti-apartheid movement are celebrated today, but were stigmatised at the time of their respective movements. But both delivered global change by challenging the intransigence of the governments of their day. 

We're calling for the repeal of restrictive laws which impede democratic rights, including peaceful protest. We've seen restrictions so draconian that they'll have a chilling impact on those wishing to peacefully express their democratic rights to protest. Also, Voter ID laws are disenfranchising voters. We're calling to repeal the following laws:

• Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (PCSCA) 2022
• Public Order Act 2023
• Voter ID restrictions in Elections Act 2022

You can read our briefing on how our rights and freedoms are being threatened.

The government introduced new rules in the 2022 Elections Act which meant that voters must show photo ID to be able to vote. A survey from More in Common found that more than 400,000 people may have been prevented from voting in the general election in 2024 because they lacked the necessary ID. This has caused problems for disabled voters, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ communities, young people and unemployed people in particular.  

We're also calling for the defence and promotion of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has been enshrined in UK law via the Human Rights Act. This was put in place by the Blair government. The ECHR was championed by Winston Churchill and is a pillar of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. It's enabled justice following the Hillsborough disaster and means that Do Not Resuscitate orders must be discussed with patients. 

The previous government created a climate which toxified the function of the ECHR. We need to raise awareness amongst elected representatives about how threats to the UK Human Rights Act or leaving the ECHR could reduce our ability to secure lasting change to law and policy. People’s lives, rights and freedoms will be under threat.

Here's some example questions you could ask your MP: 

• Do you support the repeal of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act?
• Do you support the repeal of the Public Order Act?
• Do you oppose the restrictions on voter ID and the reversal of the measures that remove independence from the Electoral commission? (You may make this specific to the Elections Act).
• Will you signal your public support for the European Convention on Human Rights and join us in celebrating this important Act which was set up by Winston Churchill after the horrors of World War Two, which Keir Starmer defended in the first televised PM debate for the General Election? How will you do this?