AS the General Election looms and people struggle to decide where to put there cross on the ballot paper, one campaign group has developed a 'ranking' for MPs called the People Power Index.

Petition hosting website change.org has developed a scoring system based on a number of factors, including how 'available' an MP has been, Parliamentary participation and campaigning efforts from 2017-19.

But it doesn't make great reading for Somerset MPs, with just one of our MPs - David Warburton of Somerton and Frome - ranking in the top half of 650 MPs.

"There’s another General Election happening, with candidates up and down the country vying for you to give them a job," said a change.org spokesperson.

"But unlike most vacancies , there’s no job description for being an MP. So when we’re looking at candidates to see who’s best for the job, how are we judging what a “good” MP looks like?

"We believe that democracy is more effective when the views and opinions of the public are encouraged and genuinely listened to by MPs.

"So we’ve judged that being a “good” MP is about an MP’s openness and responsiveness to their constituents. That’s why we have created the People Power Index.

"The People-Power Index should be viewed as a health check of how Parliament is working and how our MPs are listening to, and engaging with, their constituents."

Here's how the Somerset representatives performed in the table of 650 MPs:
300: David Warburton - Somerton and Frome (Conservative)
365: John Penrose - Weston-super-Mare (Conservative)
555: Jacob Rees-Mogg - North East Somerset (Conservative)
570: Rebecca Pow - Taunton Deane (Conservative)
606: Marcus Fysh - Yeovil (Conservative)
623: Ian Liddell-Grainger - Bridgwater and West Somerset (Conservative)
633: James Heappey - Wells (Conservative)

The best performing MP was Wayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly, followed by Conservative Justin Tomlinson who represents North Swindon.

Bottom of the table was Conservative Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who represents the Cotswolds.

"The intention of this Index is to spark a conversation about what it means to be a “good” MP," the spokesperson added.

"It should be used to celebrate MPs who are the most open and responsive to their constituents and inspire future MPs.

"We know that MPs work under intense pressure to bring together many varying views in their constituency and the party they were elected with or are affiliated to."

UPDATE:

Staff at the office of former Wells MP James Heappey have responded to the survey, challenging the methodology.

"We were surprised by James’ ranking and it appears that he has scored poorly because alongside 454 other MPs, we did not respond to a survey that Change.org.uk claim to have sent out," said a spokesperson.

"That survey made enquiries on whether James has a constituency office, whether he holds at least one surgery a month and whether he employs a caseworker.

"In every case, the answer would have been yes and would have meant an additional 4 points for the office, 7 points for the monthly surgery and 5 points for the caseworker.

"This would have increased James’ score for availability from 9.01 to 25.01 and therefore his score out of 50 would have been 32.17.

"The Change.org.uk methodology is to divide that raw points score by the total number of points available (50) and then to multiply that answer by 10 to produce a score out of 10.

"James’ score out of 10 therefore should have been 6.43, which would have placed him around 252nd in the league table, just behind Jo Swinson and Vince Cable, who scored 6.46 and 6.45 respectively.

"It would have also made him the best performing MP in Somerset."

The office said a search of emails did not turn up the survey from change.org.uk.