15 Jul 2014

Do voters care about the feminisation of the front bench?

The election starts here. Today’s reshuffle has assembled the team David Cameron wants to fight the next general election – and he’s made a decisive pitch for women voters.

At least, that was the spin. In reality, when it comes to female frontbenchers, Labour are still starting the race well in the lead. Having adopted all-women shortlists years ago, female MPs have worked their way up the parliamentary ranks and nearly half of shadow cabinet jobs are now held by women.

By contrast, although two women were promoted to the cabinet today, so were three men. So it’s open to question just how much this represented a feminisation of the frontbench.

The bigger question, though, is how much today’s reshuffle will matter anyway. I’ve been out and about in Theale, part of the Reading West parliamentary constituency. This is a seat the Tories would like to hold on to at the next election (they currently have a majority of just over 6,000). But Labour’s fighting hard to win it.

I was struck by two things talking to voters there. One: few people (male and female, young and old) seem to give a damn if they see lots of white, male ministers or a bunch of younger, telegenic women. Secondly: voters are fed up with politicians of all sorts.

That might mean some fresh female faces have a better chance cutting through to an electorate fed up with decades of sleaze and broken promises. Alternatively, it might mean the damage is done, and the only winners will be Ukip and a motley collection of fringe and single-issue parties.

Indeed, several people I got chatting to in Theale volunteered that they’d be voting Ukip, Green or Monster Raving Loony at the next election – anyone but the Conservatives, Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Either that, or they’ll vote with their feet and stay at home.

That’s the conundrum Labour’s been wrestling with. While they’ve got lots of women in top jobs, they’re worried many of their traditional supporters won’t turn out. I was out and about in Hastings with the shadow women’s minister Gloria de Piero last week, and you can see my film on tonight’s programme.

We went to several streets where as few as four people voted at the last local elections. And the extent of voter apathy there was sobering for anyone interested in or involved in politics.

De Piero found herself chased by dogs, snarled at by a feral cat and shooed away by Jehovah’s witnesses. She concluded it’s going to be extremely difficult to persuade people to exercise their democratic right next year. Putting a few more women on the airwaves might help enthuse the odd voter, but politicians face a far more fundamental problem. And no one seems to have much idea how to address it.

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