MORE than half of people in the West of Scotland don't know who their MP is according to the results of a survey carried out by the Evening Times.

 

Our survey also found more people say they are aware of who their MP is compared to their MSP.

With Holyrood overtaking the Westminster Parliament in terms of daily relevance it may be surprising that more people said they were aware of their MP than their MSP.

The Evening Times went out onto the Streets of Glasgow and the west of Scotland to ask people a series of questions on politics while the General Election campaign was going on.

With just days until the General Election we carried out our survey in high streets across Glasgow, in West and East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire.

It is not intended to be a scientific survey or representative of the population, but is the same put to people chosen at random in our readership area.

More than 350 people said they were unaware who had been representing them at Westminster for the last five years.

We surveyed 6 50 people and asked do you know who your MPs is? By which we meant who the sitting MP was between 2010 and parliament being dissolved when the election campaign began.

On this question 44% said yes compared to 56 who said no.

We did not ask who their MP was to check they got it correct, but only if they thought they knew who their Westminster representative is.

A total of 356 said they did not know while 280 said they did some chose not to answer this and moved on to the next question.

When asked if they knew who their MSP is the result was a far lower recognition factor.

Only 25% said they knew who represented their constituency at Holyrood, with 75% admitting not to know.

A total of 484 people admitted no to know the name of their constituency MSP, with only 162 stating they did.

Scottish politics expert, Dr Neil McGarvey, of Strathclyde University, said he was surprised by the difference between MP and MSP figures.

He said: "There are a lot of anonymous incumbent Labour MPs out there.

"It may be that during an election campaign people are more aware and they have the leaflets dropping though their letterboxes.

"If you asked the same question next year at the Scottish Elections, more might say they knew their MSP.

"The list system at Holyrood also complicates matters for recognition."

The campaign viewed through the eyes of the national media also pushes individual backbench MSPs and candidates into the background.

At a UK level the contest is about who will be Prime Minister, David Cameron or Ed Miliband?

In Scotland the party leaders are taking the lead in the campaign with a few big names travelling the country.

The final Scottish TV debate this week was contested by four party leaders, three of which are not candidates in the election and other front bench politicians take centre stage at election time.

Jim Murphy and Nicola Sturgeon are dominating the campaign with messages to vote for their party.

Individual candidates are left to do the local work knocking doors attending meetings and distributing leaflets.

Dr McGarvey added: "The Labour campaign is focussed on people like Jim Murphy, Margaret Curran and Douglas Alexander hoping that personal recognition will help keep their seats."