Harriet Harman
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The Right Honourable Harriet Harman (born 1950) is a British barrister and Labour politician. She has been the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham since 1982. She was educated at the University of York.
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Early career
She became Labour's front-bench spokesman for Social Services in 1984, and then Health in 1987. After the 1992 general election she was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and became shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, then Shadow Secretary of State for Health. While holding this post she was involved in a media controversy when she sent her eldest son to a grant maintained school, then her younger son to a grammar school. Labour policy opposed these forms of education, but she retained high office with the support of the Labour leader, Tony Blair, who moved her to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security.
Ministerial positions in government
After Labour's victory in the 1997 general election, she became Secretary of State for Social Security and was given the task of reforming the Welfare State. However, she made little progress and fell out with her junior minister, Frank Field. During this period Harman became regarded as an over-promoted 'New Labour' apparatchick, and she was called 'Harriet Harrperson' by her fellow Labour MP Austin Mitchell. Both Harman and Field were sacked in a reshuffle in 1998.
She made a return to the front bench in 2001 with her appointment to the office of Solicitor General.
It was reported in January 2004 that her son, in his first year at the University of Warwick, had been caught smoking marijuana, but not been expelled from his halls of residence in accordance with the university's policy. The media contrasted his treatment with that of another fellow first-year, who had died on the way home after suffering the usual punishment, getting lost, and wandering on to some train tracks.
Gaffe on Question Time
Harman made a widely publicized gaffe on the BBC political talk-show programme Question Time on 18 March 2004 when she described Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Political commentators have long suggested that Brown wishes to replace Tony Blair as prime minister, and Harman is rumoured to be one of Brown's chief supporters.
External links
- Harriet Harman QC MP (http://www.harrietharman.labour.co.uk/) official site
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Harriet Harman MP (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2223,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Harriet Harman MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/harriet_harman/camberwell_and_peckham)
| Preceded by: Peter Lilley | Secretary of State for Social Security 1997–1998 | Followed by: Alastair Darling |
| Preceded by: Ross Cranston | Solicitor General for England and Wales 2001–2005 | Followed by: Mike O'Brien |