Gillian Duffy, whose encounter with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown led to him making one of the worst campaign gaffes in recent British political history, has criticised Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as too “privileged”, and said the party needs someone who is straight-talking and down-to-earth.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Mrs Duffy then went on to say that only UKIP leader Nigel Farage has the charisma to connect with working class voters.
Speaking of the party leaders, Mrs Duffy said: “At the moment you have got David Cameron, you’ve got Nick Clegg, you’ve got Ed Miliband and they’re all privileged. They have got a life which revolves around Westminster.”
“You can’t tell the difference. Put them all in a room and they’d all look the same.”
She added that changing image is more important than policy for some people, and that working class voters would like a leader they could go to the pub and have a pint with.
“I like a pint. It’s important for working class people,” she said.
On Nigel Farage, Mrs Duffy added: “He likes a pint and a smoke, that’s what we want; yeah, let’s go along with that.
“And he wants us out of Europe and a lot of people think, ‘well, what are we in Europe for?'”
Despite her admiration for Mr Farage, however, she will still stay loyal to the Labour party, and says she has already cast a postal vote for Labour in next week’s elections.
During the 2010 General Election, then-Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown seriously hampered his re-election hopes after he was overheard insulting Mrs Duffy, a life-long party supporter.
While Brown was on the campaign trail, Gillian Duffy had confronted him over high levels of immigration to her neighbourhood. After getting back into his car, the former Prime Minister, unaware his microphone was still on, called Duffy a “bigoted woman”. He was confronted with the recording on a radio show later that day and rendered speechless.