With its shocking pink hue, helium-filled balloons and all-female team, travelling on Labour’s Pink Bus can feel more like being at a hen party than on the campaign trail. It comes as no surprise then, that when the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, turned up to join the bus in North Warwickshire on a recent day in the campaign – bearing cupcakes, of course – he was greeted with the whoops and laughter normally reserved for a stripper.
“I love it. I’ve been agitating to come on [the Pink Bus] for ages and I’ve finally made it,” he said when he eventually boarded the bus outside a tea shop in Coleshill.
While the mood on the pink bus is festive, its purpose is deadly serious. The brainchild of Labour’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, the bus has visited 75 target seats, 10 of them twice, with the aim of reaching some of the 9 million women who did not vote in the 2010 election.
Harman has lobbied every Labour leader for a dedicated women’s campaign since she entered parliament in 1982 , but it has taken until 2015, under the leadership of Ed Miliband, for her to finally get her wish.
“I find it quite disheartening when, usually, to get to the end of the campaign and you have members saying ‘where were the women?’ Well, that is not happening this time,” she said, on a train whizzing to meet the bus in Leamington Spa. So why hasn’t it happened before? “I think Ed is much more open-minded and also prepared to recognise that I’m his deputy and if I think it’s a good idea to do something, then it might be a good idea,” she said coolly.
Harman was in her early 30s and seven months pregnant when she entered the House of Commons as one of only 10 female Labour MPs. As a young woman sometimes working with dinosaurs who had withstood the Tory onslaught, it was, she says, “really lonely and horrid”.
But the Labour deputy leader – who says that in her early days she was the parliamentary wing of the women’s movement – has stayed the course, and it is arguable that the pink bus is in recognition of her three-decade fight to raise women’s profiles in Westminster.
“We clearly have a long way to go, but it’s unrecognisable now,” she said. “There’re lots of figureheads, I absolutely don’t feel like I have to do it or it won’t get done.”
Ironic then that Labour and Harman – who has never flinched from calling herself a feminist – came under intense fire when the pink bus was unveiled. “Patronising” and “demeaning” were some of the kinder terms used, while en route the campaign has been described by detractors as “sexist twaddle”.
Despite her insistence that “hours and hours of debate” went into the decision to make the bus bright pink, was it possible the controversy was welcome?
Harman brushed off the suggestion, saying only that the pink “has served its purpose, it’s got it noticed”.
“There’s no question it’s given candidates lots of coverage and members motivation,” she said, adding that at an event for women in advertising it was praised for “‘brand cut-through’ … they loved the controversy”.
Not everyone does. The pink bus was met at Leamington Spa by a group of placard-waving Labour activists, with Labour candidate Lynnette Kelly among their ranks. While party activist Sarah Frankland admired the sentiment behind the pink bus, she had reservations about its colour. “I love the campaign, but it’s a shame about the pink,” she said. “For me, pink is about princesses and being rescued.”
Bob Mathers, a 67-year-old local man, looking on as the parade of pink passed, was not convinced either. “I think women do themselves a disservice when they define themselves by their sex. It’s a bit retro,” he said. His Belgian brother-in-law, on the other hand, was all for it: “It’s pretty!” he said. “It’s a colour that women wear very well.”
In the Mashed Swedes cafe a group of women told Harman – who on entering the room made a beeline to pick up the only baby present – about their concerns. Hannah Fletcher, a single mum who works part-time but would like more hours, said her main gripe was that the majority of politicians “are white, middle-aged men who are not in tune with society”. Another woman was disgusted that disabled people “are being made to feel like they are criminals”.
It was clear Harman was preaching to the converted, as she told them that 85% of the coalition’s tax and benefits changes had fallen on women, who make up two-thirds of those hit by the bedroom tax. “If people are claiming when they shouldn’t be then that needs to be tackled,” she said. “But so does people who are not paying tax.”
Back on the bus, the arrival of the shadow chancellor – in a “lather of enthusiasm” according to Harman – was imminent . Eager not to disappoint, he arrived bearing his cupcakes, baked by his own hand that morning with “just a hint of rum” in the icing. “Being on the pink bus is my favourite day of the general election campaign,” he said, before turning serious.
“We need a parliament, politics and cabinet that properly represents the people of Britain,” he said, when asked why Labour offered women a better deal. “You only have to look at the last five years to see the consequences of having a male leadership and a small minority of women in the cabinet.
“[Labour] have women who understand the way the world is rather than the way the world might have been 40 years ago.”
At Sertec, a factory that makes parts for Jaguar Land Rover in Coleshill, Balls and Harman put on hi-vis jackets and protective goggles for a tour of the factory floor. Female workers complained about childcare. “It needs to be accessible, reliable and affordable, it’s just not high enough up the agenda,” said Harman, mentioning Labour’s proposal to let grandparents share parental leave.
She did not draw attention to the Tory election promise to give 30 hours of free childcare to three- and four-year-olds, more than the 25 hours offered by Labour. “No one believes them,” she said later.
Another Sertec worker, veering wildly off script, said her main worry was about immigration. “The enemy is within … we are not policing our borders properly,” she said.
Balls did not skip a beat – or contradict her. Instead, he said people needed to be monitored to make sure they left when their time was up.
The serious stuff out of the way, Harman ended the conversation with a promise that Balls would make more cupcakes to send to the factory. They would arrive before the election, she promised.
