Template for emailing your MP
If you have not emailed your MP before, you can look up their contact details through entering your postcode to the link below.
If you receive a response from your MP please forward the response to VSO's Parliamentary Adviser, Ruth Jackson at ruth.jackson@vsoint.org.
Template
Subject line: Continuation of funding to VSO
Dear [name of MP],
I hope you’re well. I’m writing as one of your constituents, and as someone who has long cared about the UK’s role in tackling global poverty, injustice, and crisis.
The UK’s International Development funding has helped prevent conflict and improved the lives of millions of people facing extreme poverty and marginalisation for many years. We know there are now many pressures on public spending and many choices to make. When aid funding to vulnerable societies is cut, it is the most marginalised who are disproportionately affected.
I am also a long-standing supporter of VSO, which is facing significant cuts in funding for the vital work that they do to support the poorest and most vulnerable people across 19 countries. These cuts to VSO’s funding will mean that girls won’t go to school, young people will no longer be able to get the training they need for employment, communities will be more vulnerable to climate change and women will be deprived of access to essential health services.
My own personal experience/values on this [insert personal story or views]. I support VSO because [insert reasons].
There’s been a lot of change over the past few years – and understandably, real concern about what recent decisions mean for the people and communities UK Aid has historically supported.
I would therefore like to ask you to write to the Minister of State for International Development, Baroness Chapman, on my behalf and urge her to keep funding VSO’s vital work now and into the future.
Please remind her of the deep, long-term, strategic relationship with VSO that has made a difference to the lives of over 90 million people over the years. Today they continue to demonstrate the UK’s commitment to locally led development and genuine partnership with the global south.
Thanks so much for speaking out on issues which matter to [constituency]. And thank you for speaking up in support of VSO, a British institution with global reach which continues to provide a value-for-money option to support the UK’s role in international development and co-operation.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your address]
[Your postcode]
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