ED? He’s like a drunk groom on his wedding night... HE JUST CAN’T PERFORM!
Waspish, witty and not a little wicked... meet the Tory sex toy queen who’s put the buzz back into politics!
TO SOME, Jacqueline Gold might seem an unlikely Conservative. After all, she’s the ‘sex shop queen’, the chief executive of the Ann Summers business famed for spicing up Britain’s bedroom antics with its range of ‘Rampant Rabbit’ sex toys and lingerie.
Eye catchingly curvaceous and rarely seen on heels less than vertiginous, she is a great deal more colourful than the sea of grey that so often marks a Tory gathering.
Indeed, she has a gift for remarkable headlines. Three years ago, Jacqueline’s nanny admitted in court to poisoning her, she has endured an emotional battle with IVF, and a troubled childhood, in which she suffered well-documented sexual abuse at the hands of a stepfather.
Yet Jacqueline Gold is also one of the most powerful forces in Brit- ish retail, having transformed Ann Summers into a £150million business with about 150 stores.
Her achievements have made her the 16th richest woman in the country, worth some £250million. No wonder the Conservatives were delighted to unveil her as a supporter last week. The 54-year-old entrepreneur took the front row as George Osborne unveiled Treasury figures suggesting that Labour has already made almost £21billion of unfunded spending pledges.
As we meet and she speaks about her political beliefs for the first time, she exudes as much glamour as ever in a slinky orange dress, dramatic false eyelashes and towering black stilettos, but she is very clear that she means business when it comes to her endorsement of the Conservatives’ campaign.
She starts by laughing off any suggestion that her area of business might be at odds with the Tories’ still slightly stuffy, traditional family values-orientated image. ‘If there are still views that Conservatives have to be boring, they’re out-dated,’ she says. ‘I’m sure Tory voters have sex as well. It’s just sex, that’s all. Times have changed, and in terms of our embarrassment over talking about it, I think things are improving. We’re getting there.’
David Cameron has campaigned to crack down on internet pornography amid concerns over children accessing explicit material at a young age, something Jacqueline supports. But she is firm in her insistence that the cheerful, though not necessarily cheap, sex toys sold by Ann Summers are aimed at a very different world.
‘Our approach is about enhancing consensual adult relationships and empowering female customers in the bedroom,’ she says.
The theme of sex re-appears when she’s giving her forthright views on Labour leader Ed Miliband.
‘He seems like a nice man, and I don’t want to be hurtful, but it’s important to be honest,’ she says. ‘He’s bumbling and dithering. Whenever there’s a camera on him he seems to make constant gaffes which border on embarrassing.’ She pauses and smiles before delivering the killer blow: ‘He reminds me of a groom at a wedding who’s drunk too much and can’t perform when it matters.’ Ouch.
She’s funny and far warmer than most very successful people, but she’s extremely serious when the subject turns to the outcome of this year’s Election. She believes that anything other than a return to Downing Street for Mr Cameron would spell disaster for Britain’s economy.
For Jacqueline, there’s no comparison to be made between Miliband and Cameron, whom she does not know personally but admires greatly. ‘He’s statesmanlike, a man who is capable of representing our country with authority and who gives me confidence he’s going to deliver.’
She was particularly aghast at Miliband’s failure to mention the economy in his party conference speech. ‘It was a huge gaffe,’ she says. ‘What terrifies me is that people sitting on the fence might vote Ukip and we’ll wake up with Miliband as Prime Minister.
‘He’s like someone who’s maxed out his credit cards and he’s trying to get five more because he wants to carry on spending without any thought about the consequences.
‘I believe the Tories are the only party with a long-term economic plan.’ That’s the major reason she decided to ‘stick her head above the parapet’, as she says, and publicly champion the party she’s long-supported privately.
‘I’m not officially advising the Tories at this stage, and I’m not looking for a political title, but I think that with my experience in business, particularly as a woman who employs 10,000 other women, I can help.’
It’s not just hard nosed business acumen she thinks she can offer, but something a little more human too – and feminine. ‘Politics is a very macho environment, and what’s lacking is a more emotional connection with people,’ she says. ‘We’re all aware that a lot of politicians are men from public school and Oxbridge backgrounds, although that’s changing – women like Nicky Morgan [Education Secretary and Minister For Women] and Esther McVey [Employment Minister] are excellent at engaging people.
‘We need more people like that, and I think if politicians generally took a more empathetic approach, more would aspire to enter politics.’
To say Jacqueline has had more than her share of trauma in the course of her life would be an understatement.
She grew up in a large house in Biggin Hill, Kent, but her childhood was difficult. Her father, David Gold, cried when she was born because she was a girl while her mother Beryl held her back to the extent that if they went on holiday, she would draw a circle in the sand around Jacqueline and tell her not to leave that spot, for fear of her disappearing.
As a teenager, she was sexually abused by her stepfather, her mother’s second husband, as she explained in her autobiography.
‘He was one of those people who was menacing, even when he wasn’t around,’ she wrote. ‘My mum became totally submissive to him... His influence meant that she would put me down often in front of people. I remember her saying in front of visitors, “Jacqueline’s so plain and clumsy.”’
In 2011, Jacqueline and her banker husband Dan Cunningham were caught up in an extraordinary drama when her daughter’s nanny, Allison Cox, tried to poison Jacqueline by putting screen wash into the soup at her home in Surrey.
Cox, it emerged, had initially put excessive salt in one of Jacqueline’s meals, and then a few days later added too much sugar. Then she laced two bowls of asparagus soup with screen wash and took it to her for lunch. She said she hadn’t meant to poison her boss, but simply ruin her lunch and
‘Tories aren’t dull – I’m sure they have sex too’
cause her to blame Patricia Edwards, the chef. Cox was jailed for a year.
But Jacqueline went through the most harrowing episode of her life at the age of 49 when, after eight years of IVF treatment, she conceived twins but learned that one foetus was not developing normally. Doctors diagnosed a rare condition called alobar holoprosencephaly, in which the brain fails to develop normally.
She was told that a termination – which most women carrying children with the condition would be offered – might pose a risk to her healthy baby. She was also told that the baby who had failed to develop properly would not live outside the womb.
Yet live he did, for eight months, despite being severely disabled. In January 2010, baby Alfie died.
She felt angry that she had made the decision not to terminate the pregnancy because she had done so on the understanding that Alfie wouldn’t survive the birth. Her decision might have been different had she realised he would have to live for a time in terrible pain.
At the time, she was critical of the NHS, but five years on she feels differently. ‘It was a very emotional time for me and I think it’s natural to want to lash out. Obviously, I’ve seen the current problems with the NHS, but we all use it, rich or poor, and I think we forget how lucky we are to have it. It’s another reason I think the economy is so important – once it’s strong again, all our services will benefit.’
For all the difficulties she has overcome, Jacqueline appears remarkably positive, and says her experiences have taught her to be self-reliant and stoical – very Tory traits. She admits: ‘I’ve been very unfortunate, yes. But I’m a very resilient person.
‘I recognised early on that I could either become a victim or I could use what’s happened to me to shape my life. The most tragic thing which has happened in my life was undoubtedly losing my son at eight months old, and of course I think about him every day, but I also have to be strong for my daughter.’
Daughter Scarlett is now a healthy five-year-old.
Jacqueline has little time for those who blame the circumstances of their lives for their failures. ‘Most people do go through difficulties, and it’s how we respond to them that counts,’ she says.
‘Of course I’m sympathetic when people are experiencing problems in their life, but I can’t tell you how frustrated I get when I hear some- one who’s ended up in court or jail saying it’s because of something which happened to them.
‘We have the choice to feel sorry for ourselves or prove that we can make something of ourselves.’
As with her personal life, things have not always gone smoothly for Jacqueline in business.
Ann Summers went through a difficult period during the recession, and she says she’s seen for herself that George Osborne’s plan for economic recovery has been working.
‘No business is recession proof, and the recession was tough,’ she says. ‘Measures like cutting corporation tax and the increased investment allowance for businesses really helped us, and now we’re doing really well. I’m proud of our success, and of the fact we’ve put £1.2billion into the economy over the years.’
She says she’s been impressed by the Tories’ policies for women, including flexible maternity leave and improving access to childcare, although it’s not an area for which they usually receive much praise.
In the three decades after she took over the business from her father David – and first spotted the potential for Ann Summers parties – she has seen increasing numbers of women succeed at the highest levels, but believes fervently that there should be many more.
‘Change hasn’t gone at the pace I’d like,’ she says. ‘I want Scarlett to grow up believing she can be anything she wants to be, so there needs to be an equal playing field.
‘I want her to see Mummy standing up on a stage and think that’s a normal thing for a woman to do.
‘I believe it’s incredibly important to encourage other women. My business is about empowering women in the bedroom, and now I’m at the stage where I want to empower them in the boardroom, too.
‘The Government has a part to play in encouraging women, but there are still places where less competent men are getting jobs over more competent women. That’s what creates the glass ceiling.’
She says: ‘A lot of them are like me, women who don’t have business qualifications but work on instinct, so I think I have a responsibility to share some of what I’ve learned.’
However, she concedes that all political parties need to do more to engage female voters and attract greater numbers of talented female candidates.
Business at Ann Summers has been better than ever since the book Fifty Shades Of Grey came out in 2011, and Jacqueline is looking forward to the release of the film adaptation on Valentine’s Day, traditionally a strong sales period.
‘Fifty Shades has given women permission to experiment, and experimenting is healthy for relationships. We sold out of blindfolds and handcuffs when the books came out, and we’re doing various things to tie in with the film’s release, so it’s exciting.’
At five, Scarlett is far too young to understand the nature of her mother’s business, but one day, Jacqueline hopes, she will join the firm. ‘I’d love it, but at the moment she wants to be a scientist,’ she says. ‘Whatever makes her happy is fine.’
She doesn’t yet know exactly where her involvement with the Tories will take her, but speculation over what her reward for her support will be is already mounting. In the meantime, expect her to be a regular fixture at events as the Election battle warms up.
As a woman who thrives on a challenge, she’s in her element.
‘Our cuffs and blindfolds sold out after Fifty Shades’