Pollsters and strategists have pinpointed a woman living in a coastal town, who's in her 50s, who voted Brexit and previously Conservative but is wavering this time. Does the Whitby Woman hold the key to who wins the election?Maya Oppenheim visits Whitby, England to see if the sterotype holds and what the women of Whitby thought of the persona being targeted by the political parties.
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00:00I don't, I'm not warming to either of the two main candidates at all,
00:05to the point where I don't think I could vote for either of them.
00:08Rishi is so out of touch with real life, it's unreal.
00:14And Keir Starmer, well, I don't trust him.
00:19In every election, there's an idealised voter that the parties are trying to win over.
00:25And in 2024, it's the Whitby woman.
00:28She's around 61, lives in a coastal town, voted Brexit,
00:34didn't go to university, owns her own home,
00:38and has voted Conservative before, but is undecided this time.
00:43Because I'm not sure about any of the leaders, to be honest.
00:47I think Labour have got some good things going on,
00:51but then they also have some worrying things.
00:55And I think with Conservatives, I think they've ruined the NHS.
01:01And I don't agree with the National Service thing either.
01:04I went to Whitby to find the Whitby woman
01:07and discover which issues were the big ones for her in the seaside town.
01:12I think the national health.
01:14They say it's not money it needs, it's reorganisation.
01:16And I do think that's true.
01:18I think you can throw money at the National Health and it'll go down a drain.
01:21You know, because how much money can you pour in?
01:24I think it needs a bit of more reorganising.
01:28So somebody said that and I agree with that.
01:30I don't know about immigration.
01:34I don't know what the answer to that is.
01:36I think education is a mess in this country.
01:38I think when you're teaching such large classes
01:42and there are so many mixed abilities and special needs
01:47that are undiagnosed amongst those groups,
01:49you can't teach 34 kids in one way.
01:54I think the costs of living and the NHS,
01:57energy prices, getting doctors and hospital waiting times down,
02:02being able to see a dentist.
02:04We've got two dentists in this town at the moment, that's it.
02:07The NHS, my oh my, what a mess.
02:11We still have fabulous doctors.
02:13We still have fabulous nurses.
02:16But it's a mess.
02:18And so I think the health situation, education
02:22and immigration to a certain extent.
02:26So I think they're probably the most important.
02:30So which way were the women of Whitby leaning right now?
02:33I won't vote for any of them.
02:35I'm going to vote for somebody.
02:37Green?
02:38No, I'm fed up with trying to be tactical.
02:41I don't want Conservative.
02:42They're bloody awful.
02:44I think Labour's probably going to be bloody awful as well.
02:47So I might just spoil my vote.
02:49I've voted Tory all my life.
02:54But I'm not happy with anybody.
02:57I don't think there's the difference
02:59there was between them anyway.
03:02And I think the last few years, the Tories have just,
03:05well, they've virtually done it to themselves
03:09by not agreeing on anything.
03:11They had a massive majority.
03:12Why didn't they use it for good instead
03:15of fighting amongst themselves?
03:18I take pride in the fact that I always vote.
03:21I think it's very important, especially for women.
03:23We earn the right to vote.
03:27And we need to hold on to that.
03:32When you're not given people that you can warm to,
03:36it makes it very difficult because you don't want
03:38to lose your right to vote.
03:40You don't want to waste a vote.
03:44But it would be nice to have somebody
03:45that you've at least got some affinity with.