The 2024 UK General Election will be held on 4 July. Before voting day, it’s worth considering carefully how you decide and how to most value your vote. Your vote matters and could help decide policy for the next five years.

Choosing who to vote for on 4 July may depend on certain issues, such as abortion and assisted suicide. There are various methods and tools you can make use of to find out and help you decide. In some circumstances, depending on personal views, candidates and parties, you might have to choose which issue you want to prioritise when casting your vote. For example, a candidate or party could be pro-life on one issue, such as abortion, but anti-life on another, like assisted suicide.

In considering who to vote for, read party manifestos to see what policies they will support/enact if they form a government. However, just because a policy is not included in a manifesto does not mean that it will not become party policy after the election. SPUC has published key takeaways from the main parties’ manifestos (see bottom page).

Views may also vary between MPs/candidates within parties. MPs do not always conform to party positions on certain issues. Therefore, it’s worth researching candidates’ views, intentions and voting records. In some cases, then, you may want to think about supporting an individual MP over a collective party. SPUC has created a tool to help you contact your Parliamentary candidates to ask them how they intend to vote on abortion and assisted suicide.

You may want to consider if you will cast a tactical vote rather than a vote for a preferred candidate unlikely to win a seat – this will depend on other candidates and how likely they are to vote for pro-life legislation if elected. This may take some research, but it may prove worthwhile. Of course, it could be that no other candidates seem suitable, however likely they are to win, in a constituency where options seem limited. However, if two candidates appeal to you, you may want to vote for the person who’s more likely to win.

Furthermore, boundary changes affecting over 600 UK constituencies come into force in this election after a review, meaning that areas once dominated by a particular party cannot be taken for granted. Therefore, you might want to consider how this might change how/if you vote tactically for a candidate who is more likely to win a seat. While these changes may not change how you vote, it’s also worth considering just in case you find yourself in a new constituency with unfamiliar candidates whose pro-life views might be uncertain to you.

SPUC General Election Tool – Value your Vote

SPUC has created an online tool to help supporters and British citizens contact their Parliamentary candidates and ask them how they intend to vote on abortion and assisted suicide. It is vital that pro-life people use their vote to elect pro-life MPs. Every vote matters.

Click here to access the tool.

SPUC’s key takeaways from the…

Conservative Party Manifesto

Labour Party Manifesto

Reform Party Manifesto

Scottish National Party (SNP) Manifesto

Liberal Democrats Manifesto

Green Party Manifesto