General Election 2015: No regrets for Harman or her pink bus as she meets Plymouth voters

'The job is not yet done. I’ve noticed that Hilary Clinton has reached her prime at 67 and I’m only 64, so actually I’m about to be in my prime'

Harman speaks to journalists at the launch of the Labour Party's women's manifesto (Getty Images)

It has been one of the most controversial features of the Labour campaign, lambasted for being “patronising to women” and for its garish Barbie colour scheme. But Harriet Harman, the mastermind behind the party’s shocking pink bus, is unapologetic. “I don’t regret the colour at all; that’s given it it’s profile,” she says. “There’s no point in it being worthy and under the radar. I think in terms of getting candidates coverage, getting on the agenda the issue of women voting, it has been a success. Full stop. I don’t care what anybody says.”

Harman and her bus were in Plymouth campaigning with local candidates. When it pulls up at the Mayflower steps at Plymouth harbour it is greeted by placard-toting Labour activists in the rain.

Emma Tullock, 33, is as excited to meet the Labour deputy leader as you’d expect from someone who admits to growing up with a socialist board of fame in her front room. “I think the bus is fantastic,” she gushes.

The gaggle of supporters do not take kindly to a protester carrying a “Come clean on Westminster child abuse” sign, entering into a slapstick sign tussle as they try to put their “Vote Labour” placards over his for the photo opportunity.

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Labour’s campaign to target women has included a raft of targeted policy proposals, the most high-profile of which has been grandparent leave, allowing the next generation to help with the childcare of a new arrival in the family.

Harman has no grandchildren but is excited about some very different new additions. “No grandchildren but I’ve got two kittens… Oh god they’re so wonderful,” she says wistfully, looking like she would rather be back with them than on the campaign trail.

Labour’s targeting of women has included a raft of targeted policies (AFP) (AFP/Getty Images)

Harman is also looking into the possibility of insisting companies pay the same rates for paternity and parental leave that they do for maternity leave. Currently employers often give much higher rates for maternity leave than they do for paternity or parental leave, which makes it financially difficult for fathers to take up the new opportunities for leave.

She says: “There is an issue actually about whether or not giving differential maternity top-up and paternity top-up is sex discrimination… Because for those firms that do a discretionary top-up, are they actually discriminating against men, by giving it to women and not to men?”

Walking from the harbour into town, Harman has an easy manner with the people she encounters, in contrast to the spiky “Harperson” image often peddled.

Rachel White, 20, is one of a group of young women studying human biosciences at Plymouth University she spoke to who had no intention of voting Labour. She says: “She was really nice and it’s good she’s seeing some young people and bothered to talk to us. But I’m voting conservative. I want a good job and a nice house and that’s only going to happen if there’s a good economy.”

Harman is coming up to retirement age but she says leaving politics is not on the cards. “The job is not yet done. I’ve noticed that Hilary Clinton has reached her prime at 67 and I’m only 64, so actually I’m about to be in my prime.”