Now, less than two years later, the political tech platform he co-founded to solve this problem is being used by 26 MPs from across the political spectrum – and it's still only in beta.

"Our democratic system is broken – social media amplifies extreme views while drowning out the moderate majority," said Gray, CEO and Co-Founder of Suffrago. "We've built a platform that cuts through the noise to reveal what citizens actually think and, crucially, why they think it."

While Gray didn't win the seat, his innovative campaign approach was featured in the Daily Mail, Politico, and the Associated Press.

Gray, a former lawyer who previously led two successful business exits, partnered with Dr. Simon Wallace, a PhD statistician with expertise in data science and psephology, to create Suffrago in summer 2024. Within 12 weeks, they had built and launched a working beta.

"Andrew brought the political vision and I brought the technical expertise," said Wallace. "We've combined these perspectives to create something neither discipline would have achieved alone – a platform that translates public sentiment into actionable insights for decision-makers like MPs."

The solution to a broken conversation

Suffrago's approach emerged directly from Gray's campaign experience, where he used AI to develop policy positions. While the technology collected opinions effectively, Gray discovered the crucial missing element was context – understanding why constituents held certain views based on local conditions.

"What we've built is a decoder for democracy," Gray explained. "Social media amplifies extreme voices, while polls reduce complex opinions to numbers. Suffrago preserves the nuance of individual views connecting it with local data that helps explains those views."

The platform allows citizens to submit statements anonymously, which are processed by Suffrago's ‘Voce Populi’ engine. This technology extracts keywords and sentiment, groups similar opinions, and generates professional-grade survey questions. The results are displayed alongside a vast array of constituency data.

Early traction while still in development

Despite being in beta since October 2024, Suffrago has processed over 2,100 votes on 187 citizen statements. The platform has attracted 42 parliamentary accounts and secured engagement from MPs across Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, and Scottish National Party.

"We've been careful not to overstate what we're doing," said Gray. "This is still a beta product that's evolving based on user feedback, but the early adoption shows we're addressing a real need in how political conversations happen."

The company has already been cited as a data source by publications including The Express and Roch Valley Radio.

New features enhance political understanding

The latest Suffrago beta update release today introduces two key enhancements. Suffi, an AI Political Assistant answers questions about constituency data, local MPs and local issues using verified sources, making data even more open and accessible.

This is alongside enhancing polling that captures not just what people think, but why they think it, connecting personal experiences with constituency-level data to provide representatives with meaningful insights rather than mere statistics.

These additions strengthen Suffrago's ability to connect citizen voices with the context decision-makers need.

Looking ahead

Suffrago continues to develop with plans for a full launch later in 2025.

The enhanced beta platform is available at www.suffrago.org. Users can register, submit statements, vote on questions, and explore data for all 650 UK constituencies.

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