“Why believe everything you say when you’ve been proven a liar?” That was the first question for Boris Johnson on the grill from Mumsnet users this week. Forum founder Justin Roberts, who was tasked with asking questions to the prime minister’s users, then speculated that he may have a “problem with a woman.”
Polls certainly seem to confirm this: in the latest YouGov photo of voting intentions, Johnson is six percentage points behind Keira Starmer as the best choice for prime minister among men and 12 points (21% to 33%) among women. In terms of voting intentions, Labor leads the Tories with only one point among men and 16 points (45% to 29%) among women.
Opposition activists say the gender gap is reflected in other studies and meetings with women voters on the doorstep. At recent Labor Labor focus groups, party insiders say women – including many who have previously voted for the Conservatives – have repeatedly emerged as the most outraged by Johnson’s behavior.
A former Conservative voter in Ashfield complained that “he is a mockery of the world,” while another said, “This is his experience – it is repeated, just how he behaves.” A former Tory voter in Stevenage complains: “I have to say I liked him when he came in – but he didn’t respect us and treated us like fools.”
Their irritation was reminiscent of Johnson’s 2016 Amber Rudd description of the Brexit debate as “the life and soul of the party,” but “not the man you want to take you home late at night.”
Boris Johnson denies being a “common liar” in a video interview with Mumsnet
Labor MP Jess Phillips is not surprised that an increasing number of women voters seem to be approaching such an opinion. She says the contrast between Downing Street’s party culture and the real lives of ordinary voters may have hit women particularly hard.
“Women are severely affected by the pandemic: they are more likely to do their job while raising their children at home; most of the key workers are women. In care, the NHS, supermarkets and other things, it was a female workforce, ”she said. “In addition, women are much more inclined to take care of their elderly relatives, so that the attraction of not being able to go and see their elderly mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles would be much more common among women. They felt the weight of the blockade was greater in many cases. “
This may have made some of the protections Johnson and his allies gave him for the behavior that took place – that he and his team worked very hard or, worse, that nurses and teachers may also have shared a few drinks. during blocking – not just inadequate, but downright offensive.
Phillips added that women have also in many cases found themselves at the sharp end of the crisis with the cost of living, struggling with low incomes and managing the family budget. Of course, she is skeptical of Johnson’s hopes, announced this week, of winning back a segment of female voters with the term “Waitrose woman.”
“As a woman shopping at Waitrose, I’d like to see him try it,” she said. “At my local Waitrose, they literally laugh at him as I walk around, so I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Lib Dem strategists also say they have found “significant anger among women in the Blue Wall” – the Conservative-controlled areas of the south and west that top their list of targets.
№ 10 plans to highlight the importance of Rishi Sunak’s £ 15bn package in the coming weeks, hoping to show that the government is doing what it can to help – with one of the plans under consideration being a regular press at the Coronavirus Conference.
There are also more reports of what Downing Street hopes could be family-friendly policies that could delight the Mumsnet crowd, such as reforms aimed at reducing childcare costs.
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But if Johnson’s “problem with the woman” is that women in the United Kingdom have come to believe that he is a “common liar,” very lavish promises are unlikely to change that. And once such a story is established – that Johnson cannot be trusted – other aspects of his character, including ignoring rules that may once have seemed attractive, are likely to reinforce it.
Researcher James Johnson of JL Partners said policies named after the prime minister are becoming more toxic, whether or not they would otherwise be popular with the public. And if Johnson wins on Mumsnet’s grill, he’s going to have a long period of detoxification.
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