Harriet Harman

1982 by-election

Harry Lamborn, the Labour Member of Parliament for Peckham, died on 21 August 1982. Harman contested for the vacant seat at the subsequent by-election, while five months pregnant.^[21] On 28 October 1982, Harman was elected to succeed Lamborn with 11,349 votes (50.34%), a majority of 3,931 over Social Democratic candidate Dick Taverne, a former Labour MP for Lincoln. The Conservative Party candidate was John Redwood, who came third, and went on to be elected MP for Wokingham in 1987.^[22] Harman was one of the 11 women Labour MPs in Parliament after her election^[12][23] and has said of her entry to Parliament that "I was 32 when the average age of MPs was towards the 60s, and I was pregnant as well. I was a fish out of water.”^[24]

1983 general election

Harman was re-elected for Peckham at the 1983 United Kingdom general election, improving her majority to +2.9%.^[25] In 1984, Harman became a Shadow Social Services minister, then served as a Shadow Health minister in 1987.^{[citation needed]} In late 1988, Harman was absent from the Commons for some time and on 26 December it was reported that she was suffering pneumonia brought on by psittacosis.^[26]

In 1990, Harman, Anna Coote and Patricia Hewitt released the publication The Family Way: A New Approach to Policy-Making with think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research.^[27]

1992 general election

Following re-election for Peckham at the 1992 general election, Harman entered the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992–1994)^[28] and later served as Shadow Employment Secretary (1994–1995),^[28] Shadow Health Secretary (1995–1996)^[28] and Shadow Social Security Secretary (1996–1997).^[28][29]

Under Tony Blair

At the 1997 general election, the constituency of Peckham was abolished and was replaced by the new constituency of Camberwell and Peckham. Harman was elected as MP for the new constituency and, following Labour's landslide general election victory, she was appointed to Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Social Security^[30][31] and the first ever Minister for Women.^[24][32][33] She campaigned for the passing of Human Rights Act 1998, which enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights in British domestic legislation.^[34]

In 2000, Harman and Deborah Mattinson published the pamphlet Winning for Women with the Fabian Society.^[35] The pamphlet outlined a 15-point action plan for Labour to make itself "the natural choice for women voters," with policies including increased maternity pay and leave and help with childcare.^[36]

Under Blair, Harman was given the task of reforming the Welfare State. During this time, her more notable policies included introducing a minimum income guarantee and winter fuel payments for the elderly. It was later ruled that the fuel payments policy breached European sex discrimination laws in that men had to wait five years longer to receive them than women.^[37] The policy was amended so both sexes qualified at age 60. Harman also announced a review of pension provision, with the aim of helping low-paid workers and women,^[38] and campaigned for improvements for childcare,^[39] family-friendly working hours and for changes to the Labour party rule book.^[40]

Harman headed up New Labour's controversial cut to single parent benefit despite the majority of those affected being women.^[41][42][43] There was public outcry at this perceived attacked on the living standards of some of the poorest women and children. According to The Independent, a group of women protesters shouted "Labour scum"^[44] as the measure was approved in Parliament – albeit with a rebellion of 47 Labour MPs and the abstention of many others.^[41][45] Harman was sacked from the position in 1998.^[46] According to many in the media, this was the result of a series of public rows with junior minister Frank Field,^[47] though others also cited her decision to cut benefits to lone parents as a factor.^[48] Harman voted with the party on all but a few instances during its period in government.^{[citation needed]}

Harman made a return to the front bench following the 2001 general election, with her appointment to the office of Solicitor General,^[49][50] thus becoming the first female Solicitor General.^[15][51] In accordance with convention, she was appointed as a practicing Queen's Counsel (QC),^[52] although she had previously had no rights of audience in the higher courts, did not obtain them and never presented a case during her time as Solicitor General.^{[citation needed]}

After successfully contesting the 2005 general election,^[53] Harman was appointed a Minister of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs,^[54] with responsibilities including constitutional reform, legal aid and court processes. She represented Lord Falconer in the House of Commons on the frontbench.^{[citation needed]}

On 16 March 2006, Harman relinquished her ministerial responsibilities for electoral administration and reform of the House of Lords. She stated that this was to avoid any potential conflict of interest after her husband Jack Dromey, the Treasurer of the Labour Party, announced that he would be investigating a number of loans made to the Labour Party that had not been disclosed to party officers. She retained her other responsibilities.^[55]

Also in 2006, Harman argued that Labour needed to appeal to and recruit young people to the party.^[56]

Under Gordon Brown

Harman was known as a long-term supporter of Gordon Brown and was regarded as both a personal friend^[70] and close colleague.^[71] On 28 June 2007, after she became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Brown was appointed prime minister, Harman joined Brown's Cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal and Minister for Women and Equality.^[72] She was also Chairman of the Labour Party, but unlike the previous Deputy Leader, John Prescott, Harman was not made Deputy Prime Minister.^[12][73]

When Harman, as Leader of the House of Commons, stood in for Gordon Brown during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 2 April 2008 (due to the Prime Minister attending a NATO summit in Romania), she became the first female Labour Minister to take Prime Minister's Questions.^[74] She subsequently repeated this during Brown's absences.^[75]

Harman attacked the Conservative Party at the 2007 Labour Party Conference, referring to them as the "nasty party" and suggesting that there would be little competition at the next election.^[76]

On 1 April 2008 the Daily Mail reported that Harman had decided to wear a kevlar-reinforced stab vest while touring her Peckham constituency under police guard. On 2 April The Guardian relayed information from the Metropolitan Police that "the type of Met Vest she wore over her jacket protected her from knife attacks and bullets, and, for her at least, was optional".^[77] Harman compared the decision to wearing a hard hat while touring a building site, which led the BBC's John Humphrys to respond, during an interview for BBC Radio 4, "You wear a hard hat on a building site because... there is the danger that something might drop on your head. You don't need to wear a bullet-proof vest on the streets of London, do you!" Harman told the BBC that the neighbourhood police team she was with put on their stab vests and gave her one to wear as well.^[78]

In April 2008, Harman's blog was hacked and changed to state that she had joined the Conservative Party. Harman later admitted when questioned by Sky News that the incident was a result of her using "Harriet" and "Harman" as her username and password.^[79] The hacker was Conservative Kemi Badenoch, who was elected as MP for Saffron Walden in 2017 and as Leader of the Conservative Party in 2024. Badenoch confessed to the hacking in an April 2018 interview with Core Politics and later offered Harman an apology, which she accepted.^{[80][81][82][83]}

Use of statistics

During the late-2000s recession, and following a government report which suggested that women were twice as likely to lose their jobs as men and feared losing their jobs more than men, Harman stated: "We will not allow women to become the victims of this recession".^[84] However, some statistics contradicted her position, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report on the issue which stated "the economic downturn in 2008 has impacted less on women in employment than men". According to the ONS, men were losing their jobs at twice the rate of women. The Government Equalities Office insisted the ONS figures did not render pointless its efforts to help women.^[85][86]

In June 2009, Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, wrote to Harman to warn her that different headline figures used by the ONS and Government Equalities Office with regards to pay differentiation between men and women might undermine public trust in official statistics. The GEO's headline figure was 23%, which was based on median hourly earnings of all employees, not the 12.8%, based on median hourly earnings of full-time employees only, used by the ONS. Scholar wrote: "It is the Statistics Authority's view that use of the 23% on its own, without qualification, risks giving a misleading quantification of the gender pay gap".^[87][88]

Expenses

In January 2009, Harman proposed a rule change to exempt MPs' expenses from the Freedom of Information Act. Her parliamentary order aimed to remove "most expenditure information held by either House of Parliament from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act". It meant that, under the law, journalists and members of the public would no longer be entitled to learn details of their MP's expenses. Labour MPs were to be pressured to vote for this measure by use of a three line whip. Her proposal was withdrawn when the Conservative Party said they would vote against, and in light of an online campaign by mySociety.^[89] The failure of the motion led to the disclosure of expenses of British members of parliament.

In December 2010, it emerged that Harman was amongst 40 MPs who had secretly repaid wrongly claimed expenses between 2008 and 2010. In November 2010, Harman's parliamentary private secretary Ian Lavery had blocked a motion designed to allow the repayments to be made public.^[90]

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008

Harman allegedly blocked a series of votes to liberalise Britain's abortion laws via the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (now Act).^[91][92] The pro-choice amendments proposed by Diane Abbott MP,^[93] Katy Clark MP and John McDonnell MP^[94] included NC30 Amendment of the Abortion Act 1967: Application to Northern Ireland.^[95] It was reported that the Labour Government at the time asked MPs not to table these pro-choice amendments (and at least until Third Reading) and then allegedly used parliamentary mechanisms in order to prevent a vote accordingly.^[91]

Equality Bill

In 2010, Harman introduced a proposed Equality Bill to Parliament. Polly Toynbee wrote that it was "Labour's biggest idea for 11 years. A public-sector duty to close the gap between rich and poor will tackle the class divide in a way that no other policy has... This new duty to narrow the gap would permeate every aspect of government policy. Its possible ramifications are mind-bogglingly immense."^[96]

As part of the proposed Bill, Harman announced a consultation on changing the existing discrimination laws, including options for reverse discrimination in employment. Under the proposals, employers would be legally allowed to discriminate in favour of a job candidate on the basis of their race or gender where the candidates were otherwise equally qualified. Employers would not be required to use these powers, but would be able to do so without the threat of legal action for discriminatory practices. The white paper also proposed measures to end age discrimination, promote transparency in organisations and introduce a new equality duty on the public sector.^[97] It was argued by critics that these changes could face a challenge under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion and on several other criteria.^[98] Michael Millar, writing in The Spectator, was of the opinion that "the Equality Bill before parliament today gives employers the right to choose an ethnic minority candidate or female candidate over a white male, specifically because they are an ethnic minority or female."^[99]

Harman also commissioned Operation Black Vote (OBV) to prepare a report on allowing political parties to draw up all-black shortlists.^[100] This was designed to increase the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) MPs in Westminster.^[101] A further report proposed extended the arrangement allowing all-women shortlists beyond 2015.^[102][103] These proposals were supported by members of the three major parties, though no others allowed measures to promote the candidacies of under-represented minorities in their shortlists.^[104] Inside the Labour Party, Harman said she does "not agree with all-male leaderships" because men "cannot be left to run things on their own"; and that, consequently, one of Labour's top two posts should always be held by a woman.^[105]

The Bill was passed into law as the Equality Act 2010, replacing previous legislation,^[106] including the Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

Paedophilia support allegations and age of consent scandal

In March 2014, an article from the Daily Mail exposed that a 1979 letter from paedophile group supporter contained Harman's initials.^[130] Harman denied allegations that she had supported the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) when the advocacy group was affiliated with the pressure group Liberty, while she was Liberty's Legal Officer from 1978 to 1982. Both the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph also claimed that Jack Dromey MP (her partner) and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt had offered support to apologists for the sexual abuse of children while they were working for NCCL. The Guardian also stated that in an NCCL briefing note dated 1978, Harman urged amendments to the 1978 Child Protection Bill declaring that "images of children should only be considered pornographic if it could be proven the subject suffered", which Harman said was an argument intended to protect from "unintended consequences" such as parents being prosecuted for taking pictures of their children on the beach or in the bath.^[131]

In a television interview, Harman said she had "nothing to apologise for," stating: "I very much regret that this vile organisation, PIE, ever existed and that it ever had anything to do with NCCL, but it did not affect my work at NCCL."^[132] Harman stated that while she did support the equalisation of the age of consent for gay men she had never campaigned for the age of consent to go below the age of 16 and accused the Daily Mail of trying to make her "guilty by way of association".^[133] Ed Miliband backed Harman and stated that she had "huge decency and integrity".^[133]

2015 general election and acting leader of the Labour Party

During the 2015 general election, Harman led the Labour Woman to Woman campaign, which involved a pink battle bus visiting marginal constituencies to promote Labour's "women's manifesto."^{[134][135][136]} The women's manifesto focused on five areas the party identified as being important to female voters: childcare, social care, domestic violence, equal pay and political representation.^[137]

Harman was re-elected at the general election to her seat of Camberwell and Peckham, taking a 63.3% share of the vote.^[138] Following the poor overall election result and Ed Miliband stepping down as Leader of the Labour Party the day after the general election,^[139] Harman again became the acting leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition.^[140] She announced she would stand down from the role once a formal Labour Party leadership election had taken place.^{[141][142][143]}

While acting leader, Harman made the decision for Labour to abstain, rather than oppose, the Welfare Reform and Work Bill 2015, leading to 48 Labour MPs defying the whip.^[144] Harman also made the decision that Labour would vote for having a European Union membership referendum, reversing Labour's pre-election opposition to an EU referendum.^{[145][146][147]} In 2016, she wrote to Ofcom to complain that male politicians were being allowed to dominate the EU referendum debate, citing Labour analysis which found that men made up 83% of all politicians who appeared on the Today programme since the beginning of the year.^[148]

When she stepped down as interim leader, Harman had served twenty-eight years as a front bench MP.^[140] After standing down as acting leader, Harman became Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in October 2015.^[149][150] As Chair, she raised questions about the UK's gender pay gap to the Minister for Women, Victoria Atkins in, in April 2018^[151] and called for political unity to stop abuse of female MPs.^[152]

Mother of the House

In 2016, Harman became the longest-ever continuously serving female MP in the House of Commons,^[153] surpassing Gwyneth Dunwoody's record.^[154] Harman was dubbed the "Mother of the House" by then Prime Minister Theresa May on 13 June 2017.^[155][156]

2019 general election

Harman was re-elected to her seat at the 2019 general election, with a majority of 33,780.^[3]

On 10 September 2019, Harman announced that she would stand to be the next Speaker of the House of Commons, following the announcement by the current Speaker John Bercow of his intention to resign on 31 October 2019.^[157] She ran on a platform of "putting parliament back in touch with the public that it serves."^[158] She voluntarily withdrew from the vote after the second ballot, having the lowest votes of all of the surviving candidates in that round.^[159]

In November 2021, Harman unveiled a 10-point plan of proposed measures in the House of Commons that would allow UK musicians post-Brexit to tour Europe without the need for visas and work permits. The plans were backed by the Musicians’ Union and UK Music.^[160][161]

In December 2021, Harman announced that she would be stepping down as an MP at the 2024 general election.^{[162][163][164]} She gave her final speech in Parliament in May 2024.^[165][166]

View on S&M

Harman supported an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill 2019 to implement the verdict of R v Brown. R v Brown revisited the conviction of the earlier Operation Spanner, in which five men were convicted of engaging in homosexual sadomasochistic practices with consensual partners. Operation Spanner occurred in the 1980s and had been since criticised for its attitudes towards homosexuality. R v Brown re-affirmed that adults cannot consent to actual bodily harm. The changes were intended to prevent use of the rough sex murder defence, believing people should be prosecuted for murder even if they did not intend to kill their partners.^[167][168] However, the bill was criticised as a "bad law" and "gesture politics" as it does not change the fact that intent to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm is required for a murder conviction.^[169]

Harman wrote to the Attorney General to complain about an unduly lenient sentence of a man whose partner died while engaging in erotic strangulation. The sentence had been reduced from seven years to four years eight months in light of the man's guilty plea and self-referral to the police.^[170]

Investigation into Boris Johnson

Harman chaired the Commons Select Privileges Committee of the House of Commons over the investigation into Boris Johnson's breach of lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerning four specific assertions made by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions about "the legality of activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations", events commonly referred to as "Partygate." The investigation was concerned with whether Johnson misled the Commons when he made these statements.^[3]

The Committee published their final report on 15 June.^[171] Johnson resigned over the investigation after having been sent a draft copy of the committee's report. The Committee had voted on the final report text and unanimously supported it. They concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled the House, a contempt of Parliament. They said that, had he still been an MP, they would have recommended a 90 day suspension.^[171] If that had happened, it would have been the second longest suspension since 1949.^{[172][173][171][174]}

The Committee concluded that Johnson's actions were "more serious" because they were committed when he was prime minister. They noted that there was no precedent for a PM being found to have deliberately misled Parliament.^[175] The report stated that Johnson tried to "rewrite the meaning" of COVID rules "to fit his own evidence" for example that "a leaving gathering or a gathering to boost morale was a lawful reason to hold a gathering."^[176] They concluded he was guilty of further contempt of Parliament and that he breached confidentiality requirements by criticising the Committee's provisional findings when he resigned. They said he was complicit in a "campaign of abuse" against those investigating him.^[171]

The Commons debated the report on 19 June 2023. Labour forced a vote and the Commons voted 354 to 7 in support, with a large number of abstentions. This was an absolute majority of the Commons. 118 Conservative MPs, including 15 ministers, voted for the report and 225 abstained. Then prime minister Rishi Sunak had earlier said he had other commitments, and did not attend the debate and refused to say how he would have voted.^{[citation needed]}

Following inaccurate reporting by the press about concerning the Committee’s inquiry into the conduct of Johnson, Harman and Bernard Jenkin (a fellow member of the Committee) publish joint article in The Times rebutting the inaccuracies and criticism.^[177]

Motoring convictions

In 2003, Harman was fined £400 and banned from driving for seven days after being convicted of driving at 99 mph (159 km/h) on a motorway, 29 mph (47 km/h) above the speed limit.^[216] In 2007, Harman was issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice and given three penalty points on her licence for driving at 50 mph (80 km/h) in a temporary 40 mph (64 km/h) zone. Harman paid the fine several months late and avoided appearing at Ipswich magistrates court.^[217] Harman was again caught breaking the speed limit the following April, this time in a 30mph zone, receiving a further 3 points on her driving licence.^[218]

In January 2010 Harman pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention in relation to an incident on 3 July 2009 where she struck another vehicle whilst driving using a mobile phone, she admitted the offence in court.^[219][220] Harman was fined £350, ordered to pay £70 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and had three points added to her licence.^[221] Road safety organisation Brake criticised the leniency of the punishment and decision to drop the charge of driving whilst using a mobile phone.^[222] The judge defended the decision stating: "Ms Harman's guilty plea to driving without due care and attention included her admitting that she had been using a mobile phone at the time".^[223]