How to effectively engage Westminster politicians

Businesses may have numerous reasons for creating an effective stakeholder strategy, and these stakeholders might range from elected members to influential private sector voices.

Back in May, the Yasper team was down in Westminster, having organised an event on behalf of our longstanding client, the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, who are in the process of investing heavily in their fleet of vessels. A key step was deciding who to effectively engage with.

Westminster is the beating heart of political power in the United Kingdom, and while the House of Commons is made up of around 650 elected members from every corner of the country, it’s likely that the number who would be relevant to your cause would be significantly small.

Getting the right people to engage with your Westminster event

The key to effective engagement is research. Obviously, understanding ministerial teams who are relevant to your needs is important, but there is a wider piece of work to understand other factors. Geography is a key one: are your projects likely to affect those involved at a local or regional level?

Looking beyond ministers, it’s also important to engage with shadow teams and spokespeople from other parties. Generating goodwill and support from across all sides of the house can be a good way to future-proof your ambitions.

And thinking outside the box, perhaps there are MPs who could draw inspiration and insights from what you have to say. For example, have they spoken passionately about a topic that’s relevant to you and your project in the past? A good way to find out is to look through parliamentary records – Hansard is a particularly good resource, as it logs every moment of parliamentary debate for posterity.

Of course, there’s also the House of Lords. While their remit is largely focused on scrutinising policy rather than creating it, many Lords have specific remits and areas of interest. Having their backing can add weight to your arguments.

Finally, it’s a good idea to look beyond the obvious. Check out Select Committees and All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) with specific areas of interest and invite their chairs and membership along to meet you.

When to hold an event at Westminster

The obvious answer is that the event needs to happen while parliament is formally sitting. There are long recesses during the Summer, at Easter, and over Christmas, during which time MPs will largely be back in their constituencies. There are also breaks at other times, for example during conference season and other public holidays.

You need to make your event as convenient as possible for your target audience to attend, and this includes considering the right time of year, week, and even day. For example, while parliament technically sits Monday to Friday, many MPs only attend fringe days if there is relevant legislation to be debated in the house. Indeed, many MPs head back to their constituencies around the country on a Thursday afternoon/evening, so Fridays are best avoided altogether.

We arranged our client’s event for a Wednesday afternoon – which captures the House when it’s at its busiest, just after Prime Minister’s Question Time. Consequentially, that also happens to be when rooms are most in demand, so booking early is vital.

You should also look to avoid your event clashing with any major policy announcements, for example the Budget. Minds will be focused elsewhere during these events, and you don’t want your own messages being overshadowed.

Securing buy-in for your parliamentary event

Events at Westminster generally need a Member of Parliament (or Lord) to act as a ‘sponsor’. This aligns their name to your event, and ensures that rooms can be booked, security can be cleared, and the event can run smoothly.

Engaging with your company’s local MP is the logical first step, but there’s much more to it than simply asking them to be a sponsor. First, you need to align them to your cause. This may take several pre-meets or engagement with various relevant people.

There should also be a clear theme, and potentially an ‘ask’. Really think about what you want your event to achieve: it’s not enough just to want to raise profile. Ensuring that you secure this buy-in up-front is vital.

What you’ll also be looking to achieve is a very close working relationship with your sponsor’s team. They can act as a go-between for room-booking, and act as a point of contact for invitations.

There are a range of rooms available for hire at Westminster (both in the Palace of Westminster and the connected Portcullis House), all with different capacities and characteristics. We toured parliament several months before our own event, to scope out which was the best for us.

Finally, ensure you have the right collateral to support your messaging. In our case, this included video, pull-up banners, iPads with a digital presentation, a brochure, and a leave-behind flyer. We also made a late call to bring along several large A0 size boards, which brought a highly visual element to what could otherwise have been a bare room.

Summary

There’s an awful lot to consider when organising a parliamentary event. With so many moving parts and elements that are outside of your control, it’s important to prepare effectively over many months and to work with expert partners to ensure successful delivery.

For the event we set up in May 2025, we actually started planning in January 2024. An inconveniently timed general election put paid to our first attempt but also gave us the opportunity to engage with a new cohort.

The event itself was highly successful and were able to update a range of parliamentarians about progress, highlight challenges, and determine how key policy changes could alleviate stresses for consumers. We secured cross-party buy-in for our ideas.

To read more about our work with the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, view the case study here.