The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Labour Party

Labour denies ‘patronising’ women with Barbie battle bus

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

February 11, 2015 | 2 min read

Labour is seeking to bolster its standing amongst female voters by chaperoning senior party figures around the country in a pink battle bus to speak directly to female voters ahead of the May vote.

‘Woman to Woman’ has been masterminded by deputy leader Harriet Harman and will see the Labour leadership hit the road to visit 70 constituencies to draw up a wish list of key priorities amongst women voters such as childcare, equal pay and domestic violence.

Dismissing suggestions that such an initiative could be construed as patronising Harman said: We wanted it to be red… but then it looked the same as everything else. We then looked at a darker red, but that looked too much like a Pret delivery van. We wanted to be visible and conspicuous, to mark it out, to be different".

Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage commented: “Getting Harriet Harman to drive around the country in a pink van to try and attract the female vote is as patronising as it gets. This is clearly just another divisive gimmick that the electorate will see through".

The initiative is intended to entice 9m voters who didn’t vote in 2010 to do so this year but Twitter users have criticised the size of the 16-seater mini-bus as well as the garish colour scheme.

Labour Party

More from Labour Party

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +