U.K. Labour’s ‘pink bus’ reaches out to women voters

Women Labour MPs canvas for women votes using a minibus

“It’s magenta,” says Harriet Harman, deputy leader and senior Labour Party MP. “More fuchsia,” a colleague helpfully adds.

Anything but pink, the colour the mini-van that is at the centre of a major pre-election row, is actually painted.

The storm of criticism against the Labour Party’s most recent reach-out to the woman voter ahead of the general elections this May has been caught up in controversy even before it has got off the ground.

With the slogan ‘Woman to Woman’ emblazoned across it, the bright pink 16-seater minibus carries a team of women Labour Members of Parliament who are touring marginal constituencies to canvas the vote of women voters “around the kitchen table.”

The loud chorus of criticism that has come from rival political parties, media commentators, and social media users, accuse Labour of being “patronising and sexist.” Pink, after all, has for long been associated with the superficial and Barbie-like disempowered woman. Widely-respected for her political skills and for leading on women’s issues, Ms. Harriet Harman, whose brainchild the campaign is, now finds herself having to defend the colour rather than speak about the value and relevance of the campaign.

She said that she chose the colour because it was conspicuous, and because the other colours — blue, yellow, green and purple — are associated with rival political parties.

During their tour of 70 marginal constituencies, the Labour MPs are meeting women, not quite around the kitchen table, but in public spaces that most women frequent — outside school gates, in shopping centres, and work places. The conversations with women will focus on areas that are important to women — childcare, equal pay, political representation, domestic violence and health.

“It would be a shame if Labour’s effort to reach out to women — particularly to those who may not see themselves as political animals — gets lost in debates about the colour pink,” writes Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender at the University of Bristol.

To BBC Radio Women’s Hour, Ms. Harman made the point that nine million women did not exercise the vote in the last general elections, and hers was an effort to make elections relevant for women too. The colour pink notwithstanding.