LABOUR big-hitter Gloria De Piero visited Worcester today - turning up in this infamous bright pink bus to rally city women into backing Ed Miliband.

The former GMTV presenter turned MP chose Worcester for the next leg of Labour's 'Woman to Woman' UK-wide campaign, aimed at tapping into those crucial female votes for the General Election.

Mrs Piero, the party's shadow minister for women and equality, shrugged off recent claims over the bus being patronising by saying pink was "bright, bold" and suggested the criticism was largely being driven by the media.

The bus, which is visiting more than 70 constituencies between now and polling day, has been mocked on social media and rounded on by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Mrs Piero, who stopped to relax at Worcester's Cafe Severn on the Quay during her city visit, said: "The only people that have asked me about the bus are journalists.

"I think it's bright, bold and you know what, if it's good enough for Breakthrough Breast Cancer (the charity which has adopted pink as its colour) it's good enough for us."

She also said how crucial the Worcester parliamentary seat is to May's election outcome, reeling off the female-friendly policies she hopes will take it back from Tory MP Robin Walker.

"I think women don't feel part of the political decision-making, they feel like they've been ignored and that's got to change," she said.

"Women are vital, (yet) the ONS (Office for National Statistics) show the number of long-term unemployed women in Worcester alone is up 400 per cent since 2010."

She cited 25 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds as a key policy pledge, and said abolishing the bedroom tax would also make a big difference to them.

"It's these kind of things which disproportionately affect women and that's what we're committed to changing," she said.

She also hit out at politics being male-dominated, saying too few females make a career of it and that the state of play needs to change.

The 42-year-old also referred to the "Lidl mum" and harped back to the "Worcester woman", a phrase which helped Tony Blair win the 1997 General Election by focusing on females.

She said: "You speak to different women and you can see how fed up they are feeling - we're battling for their support because we know we can make a difference."

During their stay she was accompanied by Worcester's Labour parliamentary candidate Councillor Joy Squires, who also took her across the river to the BBC in Hylton Road.