Labour is winning women’s votes

Labour is winning more women’s votes than any other party, according to a recent poll published jointly by Ipsos Mori and Mumsnet. 42% of women would vote Labour, compared to just 29% of women supporting the Conservatives. Labour has a thirteen point lead over the Conservatives when it comes to female voting intentions. This doubles to a 25 point lead among women aged 18-34. The poll’s findings are a dramatic shift from women’s voting intentions before the 2010 elections, when David Cameron and the Conservatives had a 5% lead with the female vote.

Labour is faring better with female voters than with their male counterparts; 42% of women polled back Labour whilst only 33% of men do in a similar survey by Ipsos Mori last week. Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts said: “Labour are doing far better with women than men.”

The poll analysed women’s voting intentions by studying the views of 3,675 adults surveyed from January to July this year. Policies such as All Women’s Shortlists and powerful women like Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman and Rachel Reeves in the Shadow Cabinet will have helped secure Labour’s popularity among female voters in the UK. The poll’s author Anushka Asthana says:

“When asked which party has the best policies on the economy, unemployment, education and health, more women say Labour than the Conservatives. As do they when asked which party best looks after women’s interests.”

Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, said:

“Its no wonder women are turned off by the Tories when they are being hit three times as hard by David Cameron and George Osborne’s policies. Women are losing time and time again from things like tax credit, maternity pay and pension cuts as the cost of living keeps going up.”

Labour are well on the way to winning women’s votes. But Labour leader Ed Miliband has not won women’s hearts. Only 34% of women polled said they liked Ed Miliband, compared to 43% of women who like David Cameron. This statistic might come as a shock, given that Mumsnet users described the Conservative Prime Minister as ‘out of touch’ with ordinary women’s lives.

However, the picture is not as bleak for Ed as the report’s summary makes out. More women were dissatisfied with David Cameron (47%) than they were with Ed Miliband (58%) and an equal number (33%) said they were satisfied with the Labour and Conservative leaders’ performances. So whilst David Cameron is a decisive figure – women either love him or hate him – they seem less sure what they think of Ed Milband. Everything hangs in the balance when it comes to Ed and the female electorate; he needs to do more to ensure Labour win women’s hearts –not just their votes.