Last Woman Standing

Generally women in politics are an unattractive lot. Margaret Thatcher, Ruth Kelly, Diane Abbott and Hazel Blears. A veritable chamber of horrors. Physically and personally. The exception to the rule is the 'Last Woman Standing'. Step up Ms Harman.




Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, (go girl!) and was MP for the predecessor Peckham constituency from 1982 to 1997. She was the Interim Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 11 May to 25 September 2010, until Ed Miliband took over the role.(How topical is Wiki)

She was previously the Member of Parliament for Peckham from a by-election in 1982 until its abolition. In 2007, she became the Deputy Leader and Party Chair of the Labour Party, and served in the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal, and Minister for Women and Equality from 2007 to 2010. Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Labour Leader, Harman became Party Leader and replaced Conservative Party Leader David Cameron (who became Prime Minister) as Leader of the Opposition. She served in both roles until the Labour party elected Ed Miliband as permanent Leader. She is also the current female MP with the longest period of continuous service in the House of Commons.

She was born in London to the Harley Street physician John Bishop Harman FRCP and his wife Anna (née Spicer), a solicitor. Her parents both came from non-conformist backgrounds — her grandfather Nathaniel Bishop Harman was a prominent Unitarian and the Spicer family were well known congregationalists. Her aunt is Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, and her cousins include the writers Lady Antonia Fraser, Lady Rachel Billington, and Thomas Pakenham.

She was educated at the independent St Paul's Girls' School and the University of York, where she gained a BA in Politics. Between 1978 and 1982, she was legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties and as such was found in contempt of court by Mr Justice Hugh Park in the important civil liberties case Harman v The Home Office (the conviction for contempt being upheld on appeal), before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982. However, Ms Harman won the day when she took her case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and successfully argued that the prosecution had breached her right to freedom of expression. In the field of public law, Harman v United Kingdom is still a well-known case that is cited in textbooks.(As I said..Go Girl!)

Harman made a return to the front bench after the 2001 general election, with her appointment to the office of Solicitor General, thus becoming the first female Solicitor General. In accordance with convention, she was appointed as Queen's Counsel, although she was never a barrister, had no rights of audience in the higher courts, did not obtain them and never presented a case during her time as Solicitor General, or at all.

Harman announced her intention to stand for Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party when John Prescott stood down. On 27 November 2006 Patrick Wintour reported that she had commissioned an opinion poll that had found that she would be more popular with the electorate than any of the other likely candidates. She used this point to argue that she should become the next Deputy Prime Minister in an interview with the BBC.

Harman did not have the support of any major unions, and helped to fund her campaign for deputy leadership by taking out a personal loan of £10,000 and a £40,000 extension to her mortgage. Harman failed to report some donations and loans on time, and was subject to an Electoral Commission inquiry for breaches of electoral law. The commission said that her "failure to report on time is a serious matter" though the case was not handed over to the police.

On 24 June 2007, in what was a close contest Harman was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Alan Johnson had led in all but the first of the previous rounds, but when second-preference votes had been redistributed after the fourth round, Harman stood elected with 50.43% of the vote to Johnson's 49.56%.

Harman has supported the Labour government and voted with the party in all but a few instances. She supported the Iraq War, although during the Deputy Leadership campaign, she said that she would not have voted for it had she been in full possession of the facts, specifically about the lack of concrete evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

Leader of the Opposition
Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party on 11 May 2010, Harman, automatically became the temporary Leader of the Party as well as the Leader of the Opposition. Although she is effectively acting in the role, by the terms of the party's constitution she is the leader of the party, albeit on a temporary basis, as was the case with Margaret Beckett in 1994.

She immediately announced that she would remain Deputy Leader rather than standing for election as Leader. She explained this decision by asserting that “you can’t run for leader at the same time as being deputy leader”. As Leader of the Labour Party on an interim basis, she also became Leader of the Opposition, entitling her to the salary and government car that come with the role.

During the nomination round of the 2010 Labour Leadership Contest, she backed Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She later said that this was to prevent the election from being all-male. She stated that she intends to remain neutral throughout the contest and that "This is a very crucial period and we have got five fantastic candidates. All of them would make excellent leaders of the party."

There are lots of things I find distasteful about Ms Harman. But she is pretty impressive. Not too proud to admit her mistakes, not too scared to take a risk, obviously not worried about being challenged or ridiculed. Ms Harman has done an excellent job as caretaker for the Labour Party and it is a shame she decided against running for Leader of the Opposition. And she looks great for 60!