Harman: "Future Labour leader or deputy must be female"

Several senior colleagues see move as politically divisive and impractical to implement.

By Dan Hodges Published 11 June 2011 14:16

Harriet Harman is proposing changing the Labour Party constitution to make it mandatory for either the Leader or Deputy Leader positions to be held by a woman. According to shadow cabinet sources Harman has begun consulting on the proposal with female colleagues, and has circulated an e-mail outlining her thinking.

A spokeswoman for Harman confirmed the idea will form part of the deputy leader's submission to the Refounding Labour consultation, currently being managed by Ed Miliband's senior parliamentary lieutenant Peter Hain. She has written to Hain suggesting the establishment of a working group to ensure gender balance within the leadership team.

One suggestion being advocated is that two deputy leaders be appointed, with at least one of those being permanently selected via an all women shortlist. Another option being considered is for male or female candidates to have their candidatures automatically voided in circumstances where leader and deputy leadership elections are run simultaneously.

The proposal has caused consternation among some senior colleagues, a number of whom believe the idea would prove politically divisive and impractical to implement.

"Is the Labour Party really going to move from being a meritocracy and democracy and embrace these proposals," said one insider. "It's ridiculous," said another. "If you're talking about building mandatory representation into a situation where you've got 500 or 600 parliamentary seats that's one thing. But we're talking about to the two most senior positions in the Party. You can't just stitch those up."

Others were critical of the fact the plan had been circulated exclusively to female shadow cabinet members.

Some of those sceptical of the proposals dismissed the plan as nothing more than a ploy by Harman to protect her own role, and pointed to rumours circulating at Westminster that she could soon face a challenge for the deputy leadership position. Last year Harman was the subject of negative briefing from sections of the PLP, and members of Ed Miliband's team, over her handling of the Phil Woolas affair.

However, she won plaudits for her tenure as acting leader, and remains popular and respected amongst Labour activists.

A spokeswoman for the deputy leader declined to comment on criticism of the plan, or elaborate on the proposals, choosing instead to refer journalists to a recent Tribune article on the subject.

More from Dan Hodges

32 comments

Sun, 2011-06-12 13:39 — thinkov

Dan pleae resign you are a numpty
and stuart your posts are shite

Sun, 2011-06-12 18:10 — jaded1

Didn't she want all women select lists for MPs until her husband wanted a safe seat?

Sat, 2011-06-11 14:56 — A meadows (not verified)

If either the leader or deputy must be female,what if diane abbott had won the leadership, then both the leader and deputy wouuld have been,as such Harreit would have had to stand down as one of the leaders/deputies would have had to have been male.

Sat, 2011-06-11 15:09 — R Jones (not verified)

Meritocracy in the UK is a farce - women are given jobs even if they are not the best candidate, often because they are underrepresented. Thus we end up with alot of female middle managers and poor male social mobility because of political correctness.

Some sectors are now virtually 100% female (e.g. Education), and male employment in jobs regarded as traditionally female has actually declined. Where's the equality in that?

Sat, 2011-06-11 15:58 — Livers (not verified)

Women are unrepresented in almost every area of business and politics.

I think affirmitive action *is* needed, but I am sure that it will not be required as it becomes the norm for women to hold higher offices, as compared to now.

Sat, 2011-06-11 15:59 — Livers (not verified)

oops I meant UNDERrepresented.

Sat, 2011-06-11 16:04 — Lego (not verified)

Crikey, she's off again.

Why doesn't she just start her own women's party and ban men from it? That way both the leader and deputy leader always get to be women.

I'm not against women being in top jobs, but they should earn it on merit, not to meet a quota. This is typical Harman battiness.

Sat, 2011-06-11 16:08 — Graham Day (not verified)

I agree with Harman. Far more important to be absolutely politically correct than effective.

Sat, 2011-06-11 16:24 — gnuneo

there are other types of Equality too.

what about Religious Equality? How many Jedi should be sitting in the Front Bench, to guarantee representation?

what should the quota be for LGBT ministers?

how many positions reserved for physically disabled people?

such quotas do not reduce inequality, or prejudice, they *confirm* them, and turn the positions into political horse-trading based upon "minority" status, which at THAT level in "the Greasy-Pole Game" is overt and utter BS.

they all have more than enough claws, teeth, ambition and amorality to suffice, and that goes for Harriet as all the others.

i'm all for gender equalisation, but i'd rather have had Ghandi than Margaret Thatcher,"disadvantaged gender" she may possibly have been.

Wed, 2011-06-15 10:35 — swatantra nandanwar

Harman makes an interesting point. Labour has always actively sought to promote women eg in AWS; the same could be applied to the Leaderhip. Or the Leadership could rotate around men and women alternately. Europe is well ahead of Britain in producing more female Leaders and PMs and Presidents than we have. In fact Britain is near the bottom of the league on this. ot something to be proud of.

Thu, 2011-06-16 04:24 — the pinkpostman

Best PM. New Zealand ever had ,Helen Clark. he NZ Labour Party has often promoted Women toits advatage.Present deputy Leader is a women . Its now accepted inn the NZLP...that women are in top positions.

Sat, 2011-06-11 16:30 — Mark McGeoghegan (not verified)

Positive discrimination is still discrimination, and it should only be implemented where there are clear barriers to individuals belonging to a particular group, stopping them from gaining a post they would otherwise hold.

In terms of the (deputy) leadership of the Labour Party, there isn't any inbuilt barrier, nor do any of the voters in leadership elections exhibit sexist tendencies - even this article mentions that Harriet "won plaudits for her tenure as acting leader, and remains popular and respected amongst Labour activists."

If someone puts themselves forward for a position within Labour, they are judged on their merits, not their genetics.

Sun, 2011-06-12 22:57 — frances smith (not verified)

@Freeman

i think freeman has identified the real problem here, how about we make it compulsory for the leader and deputy leader to be socialists.

with "red ed" moving the labour party further to the right every day that could be a big problem.

Thu, 2011-06-16 08:20 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

the pinkpostman

You miss the point leaders should only be appointed on merit like erm.

Sat, 2011-06-11 19:29 — David Mackenzie (not verified)

Wow. How is it possible for someone to get away with such bare-faced sexism?

Consider any chance I had of ever voting for the Labour party zeroed.

Tue, 2011-06-14 10:06 — Jonny Mac (not verified)

This is just what the Labour Party needs. Guaranteed to illustrate that they are at last facing up to the difficult issues facing the country, and thereby to catapult them into power.

Sat, 2011-06-11 20:34 — Freeman2

'Harriet Harman is proposing changing the Labour Party constitution to make it mandatory for either the Leader or Deputy Leader positions to be held by a woman.'

Ys, but only if we make it mandatory for both to be socialists instead of the run of soft Tories we've had for as long as I can remember.

Sat, 2011-06-11 20:50 — C Baker

Labour may discuss the idea, but would first have to debate- would she be a Renault(vavavoom) or a skoda?

Sat, 2011-06-11 20:59 — matthew fox (not verified)

A bad idea from Harman, you can't create an artificial rule.

Labour has a great number of Women MP's, who are more then capable of being the next Leader or Deputy Leader, they don't need Harman trying to change the rules of the road.

Sat, 2011-06-11 21:08 — A meadows (not verified)

Lets have More female soldiers ,car mechanics, Train lorry drivers, Riot polic officers,see if women can do jobs that at times are dangerous and not nice

Tue, 2011-06-14 11:23 — hugh markey (not verified)

So far the only way of countering the 'old school tie' ethic is the promotion of the better half.
Now of course some of these women will be products of private schools. But think of the social disruption. To beat off competition [ yes, competition ] from the state schools male students in the private sector will have to study much harder.
Even with such advantages these public school chaps often obtain poorer degrees than those grammar school oiks and a sprinkling of comp upstarts.
Remember, Eve was the entrepreneur - eager to take risks whilst Adam conformed. The devil take the hindmost. Think Apple - think iPod. Think Apple - think Beetles!

Femme Fatal

Tue, 2011-06-14 12:49 — rogbrom (not verified)

Don't agree with the mandatory idea but do feel that unless the Labour Party wakes up to the fact that matching the Tories/Libdems with men in suits and PPE degrees is a dead end then nothing will change. Yvette Cooper is the only serious alternative to Miliband (s)even if she does have a PPE degree!

Sun, 2011-06-12 00:55 — john hinchcliff (not verified)

to A Meadows:
Females have done all those jobs and many more and have been very successful during world war 2.

Mon, 2011-06-13 13:58 — Steve (not verified)

@Yonmei

"Clearly none of the men commenting here get any satisfaction from beating ALL the other candidates for the job, male or female; they want to continue to get positions simply by virtue of their gender, not because they're actually the best"

Nice rant, but doesn't stand up to any kind of logic at all. If a position was only available to women, how could a man possibly 'beat all the other candidates', when he wouldn't even be eligible for it?

Tue, 2011-06-14 13:24 — tom_harries

Hasn't she tried this one before?

I'm pretty sure I read something similar either last year or the year before.

As far as I can remember, it was rejected for the rather obvious reason that at the time she would have been the front runner (by some distance). She was criticized for effectively trying to guarantee herself one of the two top jobs.

Sun, 2011-06-12 02:50 — Lucas Ford (not verified)

I do seriously hope this ridiculous little dalliance of Harman's is quashed.

Why would a woman want to be given a position simply because she is a woman? Surely there is more satisfaction to be gained from beating ALL the other candidates, male and female.

Sun, 2011-06-12 03:01 — Yonmei

Wow, the number of men getting tetchy at the idea that a man can only be leader of the Labour party if he's inarguably the best person for the job, and not just because he's a man!

Lucas, perhaps you can tell me: Why are men so defensive of the arrangement by which men get given positions simply because they're men?

Clearly none of the men commenting here get any satisfaction from beating ALL the other candidates for the job, male or female; they want to continue to get positions simply by virtue of their gender, not because they're actually the best.

Wed, 2011-06-15 16:35 — Yonmei

Steve: "If a position is only available to men, how could a woman possibly 'beat all the other candidates', when she won't even be eligible for it?"

Indeed! How many women leaders and prime ministers has the Labour Party had so far? Why all the male fuss about the idea that just for once, it won't be assumed to be a position only men are eligible for?

Tue, 2011-06-14 14:40 — David Myles (not verified)

I thought it was North Korea where they had beloved leaders for life. What Harriet Harpic is proposing is of course the "Beloved Deputy Leader for life" a role for which she is the only candidate.

Sun, 2011-06-12 10:23 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

Dan Hodges is having a laugh at your expense, he woke up and thought I'm bored, lets see who I can wind up today with a completely bonkers headline, then again.

This is the party of Miliband and Balls, the party that plotted to do away with it's most successful leader ever. The party that thought it would be a good ideal to have a vote for leader of the party and Prime Minister with a list of one. The one, who deserved to be leader and Prime Minister because he did, at least in his own mind.

I can just see Caroline Flint stopping an interview dead in it's tracks about a our next war to apply some more lippy.

Mon, 2011-06-13 16:51 — Darlene (not verified)

Yonmei on another planet as usual. I'd appreciate mandatory READING OF THE ARTICLE before applying your usual twisted little logic. There is no "mandatory male" legislation, nor should there be. Ditto for women.

Mon, 2011-06-13 18:03 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

thinkov

You are too kind I've always aimed lower!

Yonmei are you married to thinkov?