Harman calls for ‘women-friendly’ election policies
A senior minister has called on the labour Party to run a “women-friendly” campaign at the next election.
The solicitor general Harriet Harman warned that the government faced losing dozens of seats if it failed to address the imbalance between male and female politicians and advisors.
In an interview with The Independent, Ms Harman said: “All the endless TV shots of senior male cabinet ministers flanked by their male advisers are a turn-off.”
She suggested that such scenes could lead women voters to switch back to the Tories or fail to vote unless Labour has “a radical progressive agenda” for women.
Ms Harman’s criticism of her party’s election strategy came on the same day the Conservatives announced that their team for the next election trail would be entirely male.
Ms Harman said the next Labour party manifesto must contain more help for childcare, more help for poor female pensioners and better family-friendly business policies, in order to woo female voters.
She told the newspaper: “The last election was a bit of a men-only affair. And I don’t think we will be doing that this time around. There must not be a men-only election campaign. We want a manifesto with good policies for women in it.”
Polls show that Mr Blair’s personal rating has fallen among women and a coalition of women ministers and MPs has been lobbying Tony Blair to ensure that women are not ignored in the latest election campaign.
