Politicians wise to using the feminine touch to win over voters

Published on Sunday 14 March 2010 21:54

THE leaders of the three main political parties ramped up their election campaigns yesterday with the support of their wives.

&#149 Sarah Brown

Prime Minister Gordon Brown dismissed criticism that he was "trivialising" politics by using his family to garner votes.

David Cameron of the Conservatives told how his wife Samantha – dubbed "Samcam" by the media – has been described as his "secret weapon".

And Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, the Spanish lawyer married to Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, sat in the front row as her husband delivered his party conference speech and gave him a kiss as he came down from the stage.

Mr Brown insisted the public should know about their leaders' lives.

Asked about the decision for his wife, Sarah, to introduce him at the last two Labour Party conferences, he said: "I decided we would not bring our children into politics.

"Look, I've decided to be a politician and that's for people to judge whether they still want me to be that politician.

"My wife is supporting me and we work together on this, and she's made that decision. But my children haven't made that decision so they should be kept … I've got to protect their childhood and I think everybody would respect that.

"As far as my life and what I do, you know, ask me the questions you want to ask me and I'll answer them.

"If you read one or two of the newspapers, you get one impression of a person.

"If you do a television programme and say, ask any questions you want, you know please do so, and then people can make up their own minds."

However, he insisted he was not interested in "celebrity", adding: "I'm here because I want the jobs that you were talking about, I want the better health service that you wanted to talk about, I want to protect the victim that you were talking about, I want communities to be safe and I want people to feel that their potential is being realised."

In an interview broadcast on ITV last night, Mr Cameron gave an insight into how his wife gives him a decent grounding.

"Where she is brilliant is she … has this sort of 40,000 foot view and so I'll come home and sort of say 'well I'm wrestling with this problem whether we should do A or B and if we do A it means this and if we do B' – and she goes: 'It's obvious, you know of course you do that, you look an idiot you've got to do this,'" he said.

He added: "She has good judgment and great common sense and is wonderfully good at keeping you pinned to the ground."

Mrs Clegg has had the smallest political profile of the three wives, but this could easily be attributed to the standing of her husband's party.

Her professional life as a lawyer and experience, particularly in foreign affairs, suggests that she would have strong and informed opinions. However, despite the current fashion for politicians' partners to be seen as part of the package, there is no evidence that it actually influences voters.

Mrs Brown's conference speeches have been used to humanise her husband to sceptical voters.

At the 2008 conference in particular, she was seen as an outstanding success, giving voters an insight to a side of the Prime Minister they rarely see. However, her 2009 appearance made far less of an impression, suggesting the public had grown wise to the tactic.

Mr Brown has also been quick to pay tribute to his wife Sarah and the part she has played in his life, particularly following the tragic death of their ten-day-old daughter, Jennifer Jane, back in January 2002.

"She is my hero,'' he said. ''No doubt about it – her beauty and her quiet dignified way of dealing with every challenge that we face.''

When asked about how lucky he was to have her, Mr Brown replied: ''She changed my life.

"And I now have two wonderful boys who have been through a lot together.

"If you do things together you can do things well. We are a very, very happy family and in this job it is very important.''

Mrs Brown leapt to her husband's defence recently, when allegations of bullying of staff appeared in the political journalist Andrew Rawnsley's book The End of the Party.

"Gordon's the man that I know and the man that I love,'' Mrs Brown said.

Like Mr Brown, former Tory leader Michael Howard was seen to have raised the profile of his wife, Sandra, to try to alter the public's perception of him.

The former model added some much-needed glitz to the Conservatives 2005 election campaign.

''Politics is addictive,'' Mrs Howard said at the time.

''I am lost in admiration for spouses who never need a fix, who rise above the fray and get on with life, blissfully uninvolved. I could not do it.''

PROFILE

MIRIAM Gonzalez Durantez, the Spanish wife of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, is a high-flying international lawyer.

The couple met while studying in Belgium. They married in September 2000 and have three young sons, Antonio, Alberto and Miguel.

Ms Durantez, who is in her early 40s, is the daughter of Jos Antonio Gonzlez Caviedes, a Spanish politician who served as Partido Popular senator for the city of Valladolid from 1989 until his death in 1996.

She has been an expert on the Middle East peace process at the Foreign Office and also worked in Brussels for Chris Patten, when he was commissioner, and his successor Ferrero Waldner.

Three years ago, she left the civil service to become head of the international trade practice for multinational law firm DLA Piper.

Those close to the couple describe her as "quite political". She kept her surname suggesting that she is very much her own woman.

So far, she has had a lower public profile than either Samantha Cameron or Sarah Brown.