Wives drafted in to woo electorate
The other wants to banish the notion that he’s too posh for office. So the men fighting to become Britain’s prime minister are turning to their wives for help.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron both have image problems that they’re tackling in a way the electorate isn’t used to seeing: by dispatching their spouses to the campaign trail.
The Labour Party’s Brown is seen by some as a cold, distant grouch. Enter Sarah Brown, his articulate and approachable spouse, to add a human dimension.
Conservative leader Cameron – fighting some voters’ perception that he is a spoiled rich kid from Britain’s most elite private school – has deployed his sunny wife Samantha to soften his “posh boy” reputation, despite the fact she herself is a distant relative of King Charles II.
The result is a British campaign in which the candidates’ spouses are in the spotlight as never before, giving the race a bit more of a US flavour. Remember how Michelle Obama’s appeal helped her husband move into the Oval Office.
For an unpredictable election in which polls suggest no one party may win an outright majority, the candidates are using every advantage they can muster.
Sarah Brown is a former public relations executive who is travelling the campaign trail with her husband. She provides regular updates on Twitter – she has more than 1.1 million followers.
She provides an open counterpoint to Brown and draws a picture of a cozy home life, telling the world how they watch movies and go for walks together. In a column for the Mirror, Sarah Brown revealed their young sons, John and Fraser, surprised their dad with “a lovely big hug” after he announced the election call.
Samantha Cameron is the creative director of an upmarket retailer – who looks after two children and has another on the way.
She was chided in the British press for popping in to visit her father, Reginald Sheffield last week. The Times reported that “her attempts at classlessness were slightly undermined” when she had lunch at his 3,000-acre estate.
