Brighton is one of the destinations of Labour’s controversial pink minibus designed to attract women voters in the run-up to the General Election.

The brightly coloured vehicle was launched last week by the party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman, who told ITV she had signed off the colour, which sparked a storm of comments on national, local and social media including “patronising”, “silly” and “sexist”.

Ms Harman has said the minibus, which bears the slogan ‘Woman to Woman’, had to be eyecatching and denied it was “patronising” to use the colour pink, adding: “The reason it had to be eye-catching is because there’s a big hole in our democratic politics at the moment. In 2010 at the last general election, 9.1 million women didn’t vote.”

It’s the Labour Party’s first dedicated women’s campaign tour where women from Labour’s shadow cabinet, parliamentary Labour Party, local government and trade unions will discuss with women issues such as the work/care balance, flexible working, domestic violence and equal pay. They will be talking to women voters at school gates, in workplaces, shopping centres, universities, in town centres and on the doorstep.

The minibus has already embarked on a nationwide tour of 70 marginal constituencies, which will include Brighton, as part of a campaign to get women voters to talk “around the kitchen table”.

Lucy Powell, vice chair of Labour’s General Election campaign, said: “We have set a goal of holding four million conversations in just four months about how we change our country and our Woman to Woman tour will put women in the driving seat.”

Labour hopeful Nancy Platts, who is campaigning to be MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, will be part of the pink bus’s team when it comes to Brighton.

“I think this is not about the colour of the bus but about Shadow ministers travelling around and talking to women about the issues that are important to them,” she said.

“It gives us the opportunity to talk to people on the topics that matter to them and top of the list are the NHS and low pay. People have been talking about the colour of the bus but more important to them are these issues and others.”