LABOUR'S pink battle bus pulled into Croydon on Wednesday as Harriet Harman, the party's deputy leader, joined women around the "kitchen table" to talk about the issues that matter to them.
The 'Woman to Woman' tour of Labour MPs was greeted by balloons and a crowd of around 50 at the Addington Community Association (ACA) centre.
Harman and Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central Sarah Jones addressed the women, and some men, before sitting down to talk about Labour's commitments to women and encourage them to vote.
But they were also greeted by campaigners claiming to be from New Fathers 4 Justice, who stood on the centre's roof with a megaphone shouting insults.
A handful claiming to be from the British National Party and the National Front also met the bus.
Once inside the ACA, the politicians spoke to female voters and took part in an exercise, asking them to write down on pieces of paper what they want from the next Government.
In the last general election, more than nine million women in the UK did not vote.
The bus will visit over 70 constituencies to talk to women voters.
The colour of the bus has been labelled "patronising", but Harman said Croydon's women didn't mention it.
"Talking at all the tables we've had a whole load of issues raised about the health service, council tax, rent - not one single woman here has mentioned the colour of the bus.
"We've got an amazingly flamboyant pink van underpinned by a very, very serious message," said Harman.
Croydon has never had a woman MP and Harman encouraged the women to make Jones the first.
"I think in the 21st century it's long overdue," she said.
"The majority of people hit by bedroom tax are women, and the majority of people to get the benefit of the millionaire's tax cut are men.
"We should have equal decision making and a government which really understands women's lives."
Harman also praised the work of Croydon's Family Justice Centre, and nodded to a "generation of older women" who work while looking after their grandchildren and elderly relatives.
"They are invisible in public policy so we are putting the spotlight on them as well," she said.
Ms Jones said society is "unfair" and "particularly unfair for women".
"Under this government the clock has been turned back on equality. Whether it is cuts in childcare or the disproportionate impact of benefit cuts on women.
"We are here to start the conversation with every single woman in the country about what they want."
And Jones told a story of a picture of an MP drawn by her five-year-old daughter. "She drew a woman," said Jones. "But we know we still have a long way to go."
Janet Anbrowse, from Addiscombe, was one of the women to cheer in the pink bus.
The 77-year-old said: "People forget some folk don't have any confidence and if there is something like this to make contact with them it's wonderful.
"It's a way of reaching out to people and you've got to try. We need to get people together to talk, we need to get women together.
"We have needs men don't and it gives women a space to discuss their issues."
Sharon Shayer, a 47-year-old housewife, travelled to Croydon from Orpington to catch a glimpse of the bus.
She said: "It draws attention to the fact that women aren't participating in politics.
"The colour [of the bus] has got people talking and when they finish talking about the colour they'll talk about the issues."
