Election 2010: meet the new kingmakers

Internet gurus with millions of regular readers are now hugely important to political leaders

By Seth Jacobson

As the campaign for the 2010 general election swings into action - there are reports this morning that Labour might pull it forward to March to exploit an expected economic upturn - it is clear that the traditional staging posts on the road to polling day are no longer enough.

Political leaders now need to reach out to voters who are way outside the ambit of the trade unions or the businessmen's club, the CBI. And they are mainly reachable by the internet.

Most high-profile is Mumsnet, the social networking site for mothers with young children, which in recent months has seen David Cameron and Gordon Brown address their politically important membership - young, well-educated, computer-savvy women - in webchats.

Over the next few months, don't be surprised to see the Prime Minister, David Cameron and Nick Clegg grabbing photo-opportunites with some or all of the following:

MUMSNET A social networking website set up in 2000 by sports journalist Justine Roberts and TV producer Carrie Longton, Mumsnet is a community website where mothers can share information, recommend products or merely kvetch about the trials and tribulations of parenting.

It receives one million visitors each month, who are educated and highly likely to vote at the next general election - but 40 per cent of whom have yet to make up their minds about who to plump for.

Gordon Brown was monstered for not naming his favourite type of biscuit (despite never even being asked) while David Cameron was called "glib" and had his posh background attacked. On the other hand, Home Secretary Alan Johnson "was very popular," says Roberts. "He really listened and talked to the Mumsnetters in their own language. He even got round to using an emoticon at the end."

JOHN DALE, EDITOR 'TAKE A BREAK' As editor of the best-selling women's weekly magazine in the country (its last ABC circulation was 920,000), the 63-year-old Dale claims a readership of more than three million.

Eschewing the celebrity fueled strategy of the rest of the market, the magazine campaigns tirelessly for normal women and groups who are traditionally under-represented in the mainstream media; recent examples include 'Thank God For Social Workers', 'Nurses Must Nurse', 'Mastectomy Pride', 'Beat the Loan Sharks', 'Wipe out Wife Beating', 'Holiday Rights for Women' and 'Young People of the Year'.

Dale evokes the spirit of Hugh Cudlipp's Daily Mirror when asked what he wants Take a Break to be seen as doing. But the political parties should beware - Take a Break readers launched the Mum's Army party in 2006.

JAMIE OLIVER The TV chef and all-round entrepreneur has become increasingly political as his career has taken off. In 2002 he launched his restaurant chain Fifteen, which aimed to give "young people in need of opportunity a chance to train as chefs and carve out a different life for themselves".

Two years later he tried to transform the diet of Britain's school children after being shocked at the state of school dinners. Last year he took on the poor eating habits of the adult population as a whole.

He has worked alongside the Government, sometimes uneasily, over the last five years, but has also been courted assiduously by Tories including Andrew Lansley, who cited his populism as something the Conservatives should aspire to.

MARTIN LEWIS Former financial journalist Martin Lewis set up his Money Saving Expert website in 2003, and since then has become the most recognised and respected voice of consumer rights and personal financial matters in the country. He now receives 8m visitors a month, and more than 4m people subscribe to his weekly email which is full of advice about mortgages and loans, freebies and warnings of rip-offs by big business.

He has been at the forefront of the campaign against bank charges: six million people have used his template letter to apply for refunds of more than £1bn of unlawful bank charges, and a result is due on a test case about the legality of punitive charges from the new Supreme Court today.

Such is Lewis's political clout that he was recently able to extract a clarification about an important aspect of the break-up of the banks from Chancellor Alistair Darling, while sharing the same lift at GMTV studios.

CAMILA BATMANGHELIDJHA visit to Kids Company, the south London-based charity that seeks to empower children who have no parents to look out for them, is de rigeur for leading politicians.

Camila Batmanghelidjh's initiative, which helps more than 13,500 children through such mundane tasks as buying clothes or going to the dentist - knowledge which would normally be imparted to them by their family - can be seen through the prism of either political ideology.

David Cameron admires her non-statist solution to the issue, while Gordon Brown has funded Kids Company while in the Treasury and as Prime Minister. Batmanghelidjh describes the PM as "hugely committed" to resolving child poverty.