Harriet Harman has said it’s “downright embarrassing” that Labour has never had a female leader while the Conservatives have had two.
The veteran Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, who plans to stand down after the next general election, also opened up about her husband’s death in an interview with GB News.
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Talking about women’s role in politics, the Mother of the House said: “As and when we do in the far distant future have a leadership election, it has got to be a woman the next time round because it’s just downright embarrassing that the Conservatives have had two and we haven’t even had a woman leader in Opposition, let alone a woman Prime Minister.
“I think it’s partly because women in the Labour Party are more subversive than the women in the Conservative Party. The women in the Conservative Party tend to work with men without challenging them in quite the way we do.”
Talking about the death of her late husband, Jack Dromey, the ex-Labour MP and union boss who died suddenly of heart failure six months ago, she said she has to “crack on” as it’s what Jack would have wanted.
Asked by interviewer Gloria De Piero how she was coping with her loss, she said: “I’m not entirely sure what the answer to that question is because it’s just six months since he died, and he died absolutely suddenly, out of the blue.
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“I feel that widowhood is something that happens to most women who’ve married or have got a partner, widowhood does happen to them. But there’s a real mystery to me in terms of…how do you kind of go forward in your life?
“My mum lived until she was 100 and I might have another 30 years. So, I can’t be like, ‘Well because Jack has died, my life is over.’
But Ms Harman told GB News in the interview being screened on Thursday afternoon, how she was trying to carry on with her life. “I’ve got children, I’ve got grandchildren, I’ve got my constituents, so in a way I’ve got no option but what they describe as ‘crack on’,” she said.
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She also spoke in favour of reintroducing all-women shortlists, a controversial subject because some have argued they are unlawful.
But Ms Harman said: “All women shortlists were incredibly important. They not only changed the face of Parliament, Labour and the public policy agenda, but they also prompted a change in the Conservative Party because they looked terribly old fashioned when their benches were all men in grey suits.
“And the argument is that legally, because we are at 50%, we can no longer do it. It’s about redressing inequality and you can’t do it if you’ve reached that equality. But actually, we could still do it and I think we should.
“Not least for example, in one region, in the South east region outside London, where only two of our eight MPs are women. So, at the very least there’s an argument for doing it there. And I think you do have to be careful because you can always slip back.
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“So, we’re at 50% now because of this positive action policy, but without it we could in one fell swoop slip right back. So, I think we should try and find ways, within the law, to actually keep all women shortlists because we can’t be complacent.”
Ms Harman spoke about what it was like growing old as a feminist: “So, I’m now firmly deciding that I’m in my prime and I’m embracing aging, so I’m positively going grey and thinking that there’s nothing wrong with being older.
“In fact, because you know a load of things and you’ve experienced a lot of things, and you’ve got a different perspective, age can be a superpower not a disability, even for a woman.
“And yet we’re all supposed to be trying to look younger, trying to make our hair look like it did when we were 30, trying to wear clothes that make you look young and as if you’re a reproductive prospect. The point is to have a sort of meaningful existence which doesn’t depend on all of those things.
“So, it’s a bit of a new frontier really, with lots of feminists of my generation who have got to my age and we’re now crafting the journey into feminism ‘age wise’.”