Written by Janet
Gordon Brown is not a happy camper….it seems he is threatening to sack a very disloyal Harriet Harman over the fact he believes she is plotting to succeed him as labor leader. His anger boiled over at a private meeting in No10, with Mr Brown shouting: ‘Who the hell does that woman think she is?’
Sources say Brown swore several times, during heated exchanges with aides on how to silence Miss Harman, Labour’s Deputy Leader. At one point, he even mentioned demoting her from her post of Commons Leader.
According to one MP: ‘Gordon is sick to the back teeth of Harman. He has always found her very difficult and he has had enough of her disloyalty. If she thinks she is untouchable, she had better think again.’ Some labor insiders say, Mr Brown is planning a limited Cabinet reshuffle after the European Parliament elections in June.
He has been warned, if he sacks Harriet Harman, there may be a revolt, and it would be considered very high risk. A former minister was quoted as saying: ‘When he calms down, he will know he cannot realistically kick her out of the Cabinet. That would play into her hands, with more freedom to boost her support among party members. ‘But he may find another way to clip her wings and demote her. Harriet has no eye for detail so he could burden her with a job which is completely detail-driven and let her sink.’
Ms. Harmon has outraged labour Colleagues and her critics have accused her of a ‘stealth’ leadership campaign after she adopted Left-wing populist poses on issues such as bank bonuses and Royal Mail privatisation.
But she denies plotting, saying there is ‘not an iota of truth’ in claims that she is positioning herself for the top job. A spokesman for the Prime Minister last night denied that he lost his temper over Ms Harman’s behaviour and insisted he had no intention of sacking her.
UK Voter
/ 02/28/2009Harriet Harman is a lightweight, always has been, Gordon Brown would demonstrate strength by sacking her and one thing is for certain, whe would be no loss to government. The fact that any MP would get behind Ms Harman for leader stretches the boundaries of credibility.
steveshark
/ 03/01/2009“The fact that any MP would get behind Ms Harman for leader stretches the boundaries of credibility.”
I’d be more inclined to look who was behind any ‘Harman for PM campaign’ for any future major Labour Party leader – in office or out of it. She’s going to be used as a sort of ‘Trojan Horse’ – get her in and then whoever are the ‘insiders’ will take over.
newsdeskinternational
/ 03/05/2009Harman laughs off leadership jibe
Ms Harman has said there is not “one iota of truth” in suggestions she is positioning herself for the leadership – but found herself the butt of Tory jibes at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.
She dismissed William Hague’s suggestion she might “step in” while Mr Brown was in Washington as “political gossip”.
After the session she also apologised for suggesting that former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin – whose £703,000-a-year pension deal has been the subject of much criticism – had been knighted for his charity work.
At business questions on Thursday, shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan opened by saying he hoped Ms Harman had “fully recovered” – but thanked her for quickly putting the record straight.
There was also a claims she had planted a story about Mr Brown possibly being offered the job of a global financial regulator – which were dismissed by Downing Street.
Her comments in a BBC interview at the weekend about Sir Fred’s pension deal were also said to have frustrated some cabinet colleagues.
It was seen as a hint at a retrospective law to claw back his £703,000-a-year pension, an idea dismissed by Lib Dem deputy Vince Cable as “potty”.
But Ms Harman has dismissed reports she was planning a leadership bid. She told the BBC there was “not a shred nor iota of truth” about such claims.
“I am very proud to be Gordon Brown’s loyal deputy and that is what I am,” she said.
newsdeskinternational
/ 11/01/2009Ms Harmon back in the news again…seems she doesn’t like the plan for MPs to sack their spouses if they employ them as secretaries….
Harriet Harman: MPs’ wives must not be sacked
There’s anger in the Commons….it seems Sir Christopher Kelly is to outlaw the employment of family members, ending the long-standing practice of many MPs of employing their spouses as secretaries.
Ms Harman said if the new independent expenses watchdog adopts the recommendation she said it would not be ”fair” to dismiss existing employees.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6479156/Harriet-Harman-MPs-wives-must-not-be-sacked.html
newsdeskinternational
/ 01/04/2010Harriet is in the news once again…..well Ms Harmon, that’s how it is here in the US too….the women anchors on the news must be young, while there are many grey haired men co anchors…..it’s part of the way things are.
Harman says BBC ‘doesn’t value’ older women
Equality minister Harriet Harman has attacked the BBC for “not valuing” older female newsreaders.
Ms Harman told the BBC’s World This Weekend female newsreaders had to be 10 years younger than male equivalents.
She said: “It’s essentially an old-fashioned attitude that thinks you can’t value the experience and wisdom of an older woman.”
The BBC said its programmes “always strive to reflect as broad a range of diversity as possible”.
Ms Harman said: “I think that the broadcast media finds it possible to value the older man but I don’t think they find it possible to value the older woman.
“A former senior BBC executive said to me: ‘the thing is, the way we saw it was that as male presenters got older they become an authority and as female presenters got older they became a problem’.
“To be a BBC news presenter as a woman you have to be 10 years younger than the men.
“They should be very careful about it and I think they should be anxious and worried about it… and I think they’re wasting a lot of talent and annoying a lot of viewers.”
Ms Harman’s intervention follows widespread criticism of the BBC for its perceived discrimination against older female presenters.
In 2007, BBC Director General Mark Thompson denied the corporation’s decision to remove then-58-year-old Moira Stewart from her regular news slot on Sunday AM was motivated by her age.
He told MPs on the culture select committee that Ms Stewart’s “traditional” news reader’s role, as opposed to a correspondent or presenter, had “virtually died out”.
Last year the BBC again denied accusations of ageism after replacing Strictly Come Dancing Judge Arlene Phillips, 66, with former winner Alesha Dixon, 30.
Following the row the corporation announced it would be recruiting more older women presenters.
Veteran newsreader Julia Somerville is due to return to the BBC as a TV news presenter after an absence of of nearly 23 years.
She will join Westminster correspondent Carole Walker, former ITN newsreader Fiona Armstrong and BBC World presenter Zeinab Badawi on the TV news service.
A BBC statement said: “Our programmes always strive to reflect as broad a range of diversity as possible to ensure we represent the BBC’s audience.
“Kirsty Wark, Maxine Mawhinney and Martha Kearney regularly feature on BBC television and radio, as well as presenters including Gloria Hunniford, Jennie Bond, Angela Rippon and Annie Nightingale.”
steveshark
/ 01/05/2010@Dave
And maybe it’s just a desire to hire the best person for the job without having to engage in the obscenity of ‘positive discrimination’.
Orwell would have loved that term…
newsdeskinternational
/ 01/23/2010Harriet Harman: Class holds you back more than gender
Class is more important than gender or race in affecting life chances, Harriet Harman has said in a speech.
A government-commissioned report out next week, will show how inequality carries from “one generation to the next”, the equalities minister said.
She blamed the 1990s Tory government for a “vast legacy of inequality”.
But her Conservative shadow Theresa May said social mobility had “stalled” over 12 years of Labour rule and inequality had “got worse” since 1997.
Ms Harman, who is also deputy Labour leader, gave a speech to the left-leaning think tank Compass in which she referred to the report by Professor John Hills of the London School of Economics – due to be published next week.
Family background
She said: “Equality must, of course, mean the absence of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, faith, sexual orientation, disability and age.
“But we also know that overarching and interwoven with these strands is the persistent inequality of social class – your family background and where you were born.”
It follows remarks by her cabinet colleague John Denham that disadvantage in the UK was now more closely linked to poverty, class and identity than ethnicity – seen as a response to the successes of the BNP with white working class voters.
The report is expected to say that poorer children are less ready to learn when they start school than those from richer families and will do worse throughout the education system.
It will also point to statistics suggesting people in the richest parts of the country live 13 years longer, on average, than those in poorer areas.
Gender pay gap
Ms Harman said it would show that “public policy intervention works and has played a major role in halting the rise in inequality which was gaining ground in the 1980s”.
She said without her government’s actions, inequality would have been worse and that they had been successful in stopping “substantial growth in income inequality” and narrowing pay differences between men and women.
She said voters at the next general election faced a choice between a Conservative government which, she said, would “turn the tide on making Britain fairer” and Labour which “recognises the challenge of inequality” and has “the policies to tackle it”.
But for the Conservatives, Theresa May said Ms Harman’s speech was a recognition that “inequality has got worse under Labour”.
“All she can do is reach for the old-fashioned response of class war,” she said.
“Over the last 12 years social mobility has stalled, so it is even harder to escape poverty. Labour’s failure has been a result of their one-dimensional approach.
“Unlike Labour, we will deal with the causes of poverty and inequality, including educational failure, family breakdown and worklessness.”
For the Liberal Democrats, Lynne Featherstone said: “This government’s record on tackling inequality has been pathetic and the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened under Labour.”
Ms Harman is trying to get her Equality Bill – which would impose a responsibility on local authorities to tackle social inequality – through Parliament, but it is facing resistance in the House of Lords.
Ms Featherstone said proposals in the bill were “weak, won’t deliver the necessary reforms and like Harriet Harman’s speech, demonstrate merely gesture politics”.
newsdeskinternational
/ 07/24/2010How Harman helped Labour donor in visa trouble: Nigerian’s wife lived unlawfully in UK for six years
Harriet Harman was last night facing damaging claims that she lobbied the
Home Office on behalf of a Labour Party donor’s immigrant wife who is living in Britain unlawfully.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297424/Harriet-Harman-helped-wife-Labour-donor-visa-ran-years-ago.html