Scrapping child benefit for middle class families and excluding stay-at-home mothers from state-funded childcare to could cost the Conservatives the next election, a polling study suggests.
David Cameron has overseen a dramatic collapse in the traditionally strong support for the Conservatives among women, according to research by Mori for the influential website Mumsnet.
>The Tories are currently trailing Labour among female voters by 13 points, three times the average lead among men – with the opposition securing 42 per cent support in recent polls.
Among women under 35 the Conservatives are behind by as much as 25 points. But Labour’s dominant position among female voters, spans all age groups, social classes and professional backgrounds with even women in the highest income bracket more likely to vote for Ed Miliband’s party.
It comes in stark contrast with the 2010 vote which brought the Coalition to power.
The 2010 vote was nicknamed the “Mumsnet election” as a the website emerged as a potent force, demonstrated when its members challenged Gordon Brown over possible cuts to childcare subsidies. Although Tory support was strongest among men, the party still enjoyed a five per cent lead over Labour in the battle for women’s votes. This time less than a third of women plan to vote Conservative.
Female support for the Liberal Democrats has fallen even more dramatically, from 26 per cent at the 2010 election to just 11 per cent in recent polls. Meanwhile almost one in 10 women intent to vote Ukip.
The study – which draws together several months of polling and detailed focus group results, found that women who planning to vote Labour still have major reservations about Ed Miliband. Women ranked David Cameron as the most “out of touch” of the three party leaders. But Mr Miliband trailed far behind the Prime Minister when it came to perceived competence.
The key issue, according to Mori, is the economy – an area in which the Conservatives have a strong lead among men but are trailing Labour by six points among women. The pollsters concluded that Labour claims that cuts have hit women hardest appear to be paying off.
But the focus groups singled out family policies including removing child benefit from couples in which one person pays a higher rate of tax even if the other has no income. Last month George Osborne angered some campaigners by describing mothers who stay at home to look after children as making a “lifestyle choice”.
Mothers who took part in the research spoke of doing “full-time unpaid work” which they felt was undervalued by the Government.
One said: “I am a professional, educated woman who has chosen to stay at home with my children who are small. The party leaders talk about respecting those parents who make the same choice but then in the next moment turn around and completely dismiss them.”
From ‘The Telegraph’, 17th September 2013
