Britain's MPs have been ranked from best to worst - how did Sheffield's fare?

The People-Power Index has been drawn up ahead of the forthcoming General Election on December 12 – and ranks all of the country’s 650 MPs on areas such as availability to constituents, participation in Parliament and whether they listen to the public or not.

The rankings, from Change.org, reveals the top MPs who listened to, and engaged with, their constituents over the last two years.

And Sheffield’s MPs’ performance in the table varies greatly – and it won’t be a surprise that Jared O’Mara was ranked among the country’s very worst.

Coming out on top in Sheffield was Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith, who was placed 150th out of 650 MPs.

The former Labour MP, who is now with the Liberal Democrats, finished ahead of Sheffield Central’s Paul Blomfield (Labour) who was ranked 268th.

Next up was Brightside and Hillsborough’s Gill Furniss (Labour) who claimed 375th spot, ahead of Labour’s MP for Sheffield Heeley, Louise Haigh, who was 439th.

Labour’s Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) was ranked 467th.

Bringing up the rear and Sheffield’s worst performing MP was Hallam’s Jared O’Mara who was ranked 646th out of 650 for his parliamentary performance.

Locally, in South Yorkshire, Doncaster Central’s Rosie Winterton was named the area’s very best MP, the Labour member finishing in 58th spot.

A spokesman for change.org said: “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.”

To make the Index, the survey used ten data sources which measure the following, in priority order

1.Your MP’s availability to their constituents. This looks at how your MP is available online (email and social media), offline (holding “surgeries” in your local area and a caseworker), and whether your MP is distracted by a second (or third) job.

2.Your MP’s participation in Parliament. This looks at your MP’s participation record for voting in Parliament, so that your constituency is counted when new laws are passed, and how often your MP raises issues from your constituency in Parliament

3.How an MP listens to the public. An MP’s top priority is their constituency, but they also have a responsibility to the wider general public to bring political attention to mass public campaigns and priority issues by discussing them in Parliament.

All mentions of “MPs” refer to Members of Parliament for the 2017-2019 period, most of whom are now candidates seeking re-election in December 2019 at the General Election.

Labour’s Wayne David (Caerphilly) was ranked number one while Conservative Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) was 650th and last.

Taking the whole Index of 650 MPs, female MPs slightly outperform male MPs. Despite only holding 32% of seats in Parliament, women account for 36% of the top 50 MPs. Men are ranked lowest, making up 82% bottom 50 MPs.

Along party lines, two-thirds of the top 50 MPs are Labour, and almost three-quarters of the bottom 50 are Conservative MPs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, eight of the MPs for the top 10 marginal constituencies at the last General Election are in the top half of the Index, suggesting they work harder to earn their votes.

Commenting on the launch of the People-Power Index, Kajal Odedra, UK Executive Director of Change.org, said: “We want voters to check how their MP ranks when making their mind up whether to re-elect their last MP or not, and we want the People-Power Index to inspire new MPs to prioritise their relationship with their constituents.”

You can see the full list HERE