Davis feels wrath of the Tory ladies as he says: I prefer blondes
DAVID Davis’s attempt to woo women voters backfired yesterday after he was accused of ‘patronising’ them. The Tory leadership contender landed in trouble after he expressed a preference for blondes during a head-to-head radio debate with his rival David Cameron.
He then joked: ‘ I shouldn’t have said that. My wife is brunette.’ In Westminster, observers noted that, in fact, his wife Doreen’s hair appears closer to red.
Asked if he preferred blondes or brunettes, Mr Cameron declined to answer.
Their joint appearance on Radio 4’ s Woman’s Hour came ahead of a hustings in Westminster organised by the Conservative Women’s Organisation.
Its president, Pamela Parker, said she was ‘absolutely horrified’ by Mr Davis’s remarks about blondes.
‘I will have words with him,’ she added. ‘He should have just said nothing. It is bad taste. I am sure he would be the first to say, “Oh my God, I should not have said that.”’
She also condemned Mr Davis for having appeared with women activists who had: ‘It’s DD for Me’ emblazoned across the chests of their T- shirts at the Tory conference in Blackpool.
She said: ‘ As someone with a DD bra size, I took great exception. I told him it was in very bad taste and does his campaign no good at all.
‘He has many excellent qualities and it’s unfortunate. He slipped up on the DD thing and on the blonde thing. It’s patronising, and he’s not patronising in real life.’
Mr Davis, 56, insisted the Tshirts were ‘the idea of a girl’. He added: ‘ All right, some people got upset by it, I am sorry about that. But it was a sense of humour failure.’ On Woman’s Hour, both candidates agreed the Tory Party must make strenuous efforts to win back support of ‘ letdown ladies’.
Mr Cameron said he is dismayed that the Conservatives have just 17 female MPs and believes ‘everything short’ of all-women shortlists is necessary to increase the number.
He favours a centrally- compiled ‘ A- list’ of Tory candidates – probably with 50 per cent women – which will help get more women elected. He said the list would include ‘ suggested’ candiexplosions dates, rather than anything imposed on constituencies.
Mr Davis said: ‘I want to see more women in politics, at all levels.
‘ I don’t believe in positive discrimination, so I would invest the full authority of my leadership in persuasion, not imposition.’ He insisted his policies have to idea that be ‘ good for me and good for my neighbour’ must ‘ run through us like a Brighton stick of rock’.
The Tories had to pass a ‘ decency test’ so that people at dinner parties would be proud to tell their friends they were active supporters, rather than being embarrassed about it, he added.
Mr Davis said he would publish a separate ‘women’s manifesto’, but Mr Cameron said women’s concerns were too important to be relegated to a separate document.
Policies for women should be ‘at the heart’ of the Tories’ main manifesto at the next election, he declared.
At the CWO event, Mr Cameron appeared to win over the audience, with a majority indicating in a show of hands that they would vote for him in the leadership contest.
Tory transport spokesman John Hayes, backing Mr Cameron, said there was ‘something of the past’ about Mr Davis. He was one of four more MPs who came out in support of Mr Cameron yesterday.
Oliver Heald, Stephen O’Brien and Justine Greening – former supporters of Liam Fox – publicly backed him.
The Cameron campaign complained after the Times newspaper published a poll giving Mr Davis a 50 per cent to 37 per cent over his rival among Tory voters. An aide to Mr Cameron claimed those figures were based on the views of just 122 people.
j.chapman@dailymail.co.uk