Vote-OK
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Vote-OK are a group of political activists which were active in the United Kingdom general election of 2005.
The group was against the fox hunting ban and its main aim was to defeat any Members of Parliament which voted in favour of the Hunting Act 2004. Their tactic was to aid other candidates in any constituency where the sitting MP supported a ban. This usually meant supporting the Conservative Party candidate. They did not focus efforts in campaigning against the fox hunting ban itself but provided extra volunteers during the campaigning stage of the election. They became involved in telephone canvassing, leafleting and other activities as required.
They targeted 139 seats (out of a total of 646 contested in the election). After the election the group claimed to have helped defeat 29 MPs as well as reducing the majorities of 21 anti-hunting MPs to under 3%, although anti-hunt groups such as Save Our Wild Animals dismissed this claim as "ludicrous". Members of Parliament who they have claimed to have helped defeat include David Rendel (Liberal Democrat) of Newbury, Peter Bradley (Labour) of The Wrekin who was the Parliamentary Private Secretary of Alun Michael, the minister in charge of handling the ban, and Helen Clark (Labour) of Peterborough. It is difficult, however, to separate out such local swings from the national swing in the election.
[edit] See also
- Countryside Alliance, with whom they are affiliated.
- Pressure groups in the United Kingdom
