Activists to build database of political candidates' policies

The system will hold candidates to promises, says the group

A new group called Democracy Club is attempting to build a publicly accessible database of candidates and their opinions, according to the BBC.

The group is recruiting volunteers to draw up lists of issues that are important to voters and then putting those issues to MPs.

The MPs' responses will be recorded and kept in a database to see if they keep their promises after the election.

Seb Bacon, the co-ordinator of Democracy Club, told the BBC it was set up to become the place people turn to for neutral information about MPs.

"It gives people an insight into the politicians they are voting for rather than just relying on information from the party machine," he said.

The club now has around 3,000 volunteers spread across 98 per cent of the UK's constituencies.

Many of those involved are connected with MySociety, the e-democracy group responsible for sites such as theyworkforyou.com.

Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety, told the BBC that the club would help improve the transparency of government.

"If you have an opaque regime, where people can get away with things, they will try to get away with them. This will give them the incentive to do right in the first place," he said.