Nuneaton Woman: The voters Labour need to woo
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Published
![Sir Keir Starmer at Labour's local elections launch](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/13A53/production/_133176408_gettyimages-2113282609-594x594.jpg)
For more than a decade, the Warwickshire towns of Nuneaton and Bedworth have been electoral bogeymen to Labour.
The momentous victory of Nuneatonâs MP Marcus Jones in 2015 has been cemented into Conservative folklore.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron said holding the marginal seat was the moment he knew the Conservatives had won the general election that year.
And since then, local elections to Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council have only compounded Labourâs demons.
The Conservatives won a landslide victory to take control of the council in 2021, leaving a rump of Labour councillors.
This year, with the Conservatives sagging in national polls, Labour has high hopes of winning back the council in Mayâs local elections.
The constituency of Nuneaton has historically been considered a bellwether, meaning it usually votes for the winning party in general elections.
Labour says itâs fighting for every vote this May in Nuneaton and Bedworth, towns which both strongly voted for Brexit.
But thereâs one particular group of voters who could be important to both this result and the general election expected this year.
ONS data show women in their 30s who work in retail make up a large part of the areaâs population. And some of them are shopping around for a party to vote for.
Kirsty Marshall, 38, works at Joco Gifts in Nuneaton town centre and says she hasnât made her mind up yet.
âI sway between [Conservative and Labour] but I do think the Conservatives have got a little bit more to offer us at the moment in the town,â she explained.
She gives more weight to local issues in all ballots â but what does she think of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak?
âI think he needs to join the real world and see how everybody lives, because if youâre living hand to mouth, I donât think he really understands,â she said.
Her friend Kayleigh Robinson, 33, works at Savers and says town centre regeneration is important to her.
The council scaled back its town regeneration plan by ÂŁ40m this year, claiming not doing so âwould have bankrupted usâ.
âThereâs hardly any shops,â Ms Robinson said. âIt just feels depressed â thereâs just nothing.â
Rebecca Thackwray, in the same age group, has been listening to the political mood music nationally.
The mum-of-one, 39, works for the NHS and is concerned about cuts to health services.
âAnd nationally as well, I havenât felt like weâve been going in a particularly good direction, or focusing on the right things,â she told the BBC.
The votes of women like these are seen as an important barometer of political support.
A Labour think tank says the so-called Stevenage Woman, a young, suburban female voter whoâs hard-working but worried about the cost of living and switched off from politics, will be the key to Sir Keir Starmerâs hopes of winning the next election.
Patrick English, YouGovâs director of political analytics, says Nuneaton is âmade up of exactly this type of voterâ.
âTheyâre looking for government to provide solutions for them,â he said. âTheyâre quite prevalent in Nuneaton and all of these other Midlands swing seats as well.â
But are local political leaders tempting Nuneaton Woman?
The councilâs Conservative leader Kris Wilson insists âthere is no love for Labour locallyâ.
He says Sir Keir is âno Tony Blairâ, adding: âPeople donât trust him and said to me âwe canât risk going over to Starmer-geddonâ.â
Labourâs local group leader Chris Watkins says his party is âdoing things differentlyâ and putting town centre regeneration at the heart of its offer.
âWe do need to see more retail shops coming into Nuneaton and Bedworth â so thatâs what weâre trying to do.â
The Greens insist a vote for them isnât a wasted one.
Their local group leader Keith Kondakor says his party has been very effective at holding both Labour and the Conservatives to account.
âAt the moment weâre more of an opposition than Labour,â he said.
All eyes were on Nuneaton in 2015 â and they will be once again this year as they look for hints of whatâs to come nationally.
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