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Andrew faces up to his voters

by Tom Rowley
23/ 4/2008

ONE would-be MP is trying a novel approach to reach voters, particularly those aged 18-30.

With High Peak the 37th most marginal seat in the country, every vote in Glossop will be crucial when Prime Minister Gordon Brown decides to call a general election.

Andrew Bingham, the Conservative parliamentary candidate, is aiming to go one better than he did at the 2005 election and overcome MP Tom Levitt’s 735-vote majority.

He has now set up a page on Facebook, the social networking website, which has around 8.5 million registered users in the UK.

"I have heard a lot about Facebook in recent months, so I decided to have a look for myself," said Councillor Bingham.

"As fewer and fewer young people decide to vote, we have a duty to try and reach out to them through a method that they use and not the ones that we think they should use."Having studied Facebook, I decided that this was one such way of communicating. I have now set up a page on Facebook. Please take a look, add me as a friend, write on my wall or drop me a line."

Councillor Bingham, who started his own internet blog a few years ago, is following in the footsteps of party leader David Cameron, who also has a Facebook profile, along with cabinet minister James Purnell, MP for neighbouring constituency Stalybridge and Hyde.

Facebook was founded by American dotcom entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg, who only turns 24 in May.

At one stage Microsoft was said to be weighing up a stake in the site, which would have valued Facebook at £5 billion.