Polling platform Suffrago says it has employed 35 part-time video reporters with ambitions to have coverage in every UK parliamentary constituency.
The start-up launched in November 2024 to more accurately reflect local opinion than existing national polling methods.
It hired its first six reporters in April 2025, and says it has 35 reporters placed across the country at time of writing. They are paid £20 per video to produce video-based reports on local issues (with earnings capped at £500 per month).
The company claimed 600,000 video views across social media platforms per month.
Chief executive Andrew Gray said: “Politicians aren’t aware of the genuine issues that are plaguing people in their constituencies because it’s just not reported on, and Suffrago is trying to change that.”
This polling data is also used to inform 90-second videos – published on Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube – which are carried out by its freelance reporters.
Gray said Suffrago is planning to launch a new platform he describes “as a subscription-based Nextdoor for democracy”.
The proposed subscriptions platform would see members sign up to ask and answer questions about their local area and access solutions.
“Conversations on our platform are moderated by AI to avoid toxicity, and designed to create compromise and solutions rather than division,” said Gray, adding that AI is used to “sanitise” conversation, and make it a space of solutions – “without falling out with each other”.
For example, “if someone wanted to change the speed limit, they could post this and there would be a vote,” said Gray, with volatile language “stripped out”.
Gray used polling software to run as an “AI-powered” candidate in a by-election in North Yorkshire in 2023 (receiving 99 votes).
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Source: Online polling start-up invests in freelance video reporters
