Campaign: #TakeYourMPToWork (2019)

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YLAL Campaign: Take Your MP To Work 

Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid are running a joint campaign: #TakeYourMPtoWork.

We’re organising MPs to visit law centres and legal advice clinics over the next few months to see first-hand why comprehensive early legal advice is so vital. MPs will meet with legal aid lawyers and in many cases shadow an early legal advice session.

The government has committed to piloting early legal advice in one area of social welfare law (e.g. housing). We need them to recognise that social welfare problems are complex and often not confined to one area of law. The government must commit to a comprehensive early legal advice pilot.

We are planning to hold a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament where MPs who take part in our campaign can draw upon what they have seen on the #LegalAidFrontline.

We hosted a launch event in Parliament on 15 July 2019.

[Image owned by Richard Gray]

(Rohini Teather of APPG Legal Aid  |  Legal Aid Minister Paul Maynard MP  |  Shadow Justice Minister Richard Burgon MP  |  YLAL Co-Chair Ollie Persey at the launch in Parliament of our #TakeYourMPToWork campaign)

Who’s involved?

We’ve already had more than 45 MPs agree to take part in our #TakeYourMPToWork Campaign.

You can look at the full list, and check out whether your MP has agreed.

Some who haven’t yet done a visit have told us why they think early advice is important.

TakeYourMPtoWork in the News

Our campaign has been in the news! Check out the coverage.

Visits by Members of Parliament:

Some visits have already taken place, with MPs learning about the fantastic work Young (and not so Young!) Legal Aid Lawyers do on a day-today basis.

They found out about how early advice can stop legal and practical problems escalating for our clients.

We’re grateful to the following MPs for taking the time to get involved, and hope that they learned more about access to justice and early advice:

We’ve also had MPs tell us why they think early advice is important.

Is your MP not mentioned above? Then ask them now to visit the legal aid front line: 

We want to make lots of noise about this on Twitter to encourage MPs to sign up. We’ll arrange the visit (which doesn’t have to be where you work!); all you need to do is ask your MP. If your MP replies, we will contact them directly via email.

Take Action: Tweet Your MP
Copy and paste this tweet and amend for your MP:

“Hi xxxx, @YLALawyers and @APPGLegalAid are running a campaign where MPs will shadow legal aid lawyers on the frontline to see why early legal advice is vital. Join MPs from across the political spectrum who are taking part. Reply to this tweet to find out more. #TakeYourMPtoWork

Not sure who your MP is? Check here.

If Twitter isn’t your thing, you can also write to your MP. Your MP’s email should be available here or by googling them. 

TEMPLATE EMAIL: TAKE YOUR MP TO WORK

Here’s the text of a template email for you to send to your MP.

Questions?

If you have any questions about #TakeYourMPtoWork, please email us at ylalcampaigns@gmail.com.