The Baroness Harman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 May 2015 – 12 September 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | David Cameron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ed Miliband | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jeremy Corbyn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 11 May 2010 – 25 September 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | David Cameron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | David Cameron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ed Miliband | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 24 June 2007 – 12 September 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader |
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| Preceded by | John Prescott | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tom Watson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the House of Commons Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jack Straw | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | George Young | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Social Security | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 3 May 1997 – 27 July 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Peter Lilley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Alistair Darling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 19 August 2024 Life peerage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forCamberwell and Peckham Peckham (1982–1997) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 October 1982 – 30 May 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Harry Lamborn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Miatta Fahnbulleh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Harriet Ruth Harman (1950-07-30)30 July 1950 (age 75) Marylebone,London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent(s) | John B. Harman Anna Spicer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | See list
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| Residence(s) | Herne Hill, London, England Suffolk, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Goodricke College, York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Harriet Ruth Harman, Baroness Harman (born 30 July 1950), is a British politician and solicitor who served asDeputy Leader of the Labour Party andChair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2015 andLeader of the House of Commons andLord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 2007 to 2010. She also briefly served asLeader of the Opposition in 2010 and 2015 following the resignations ofGordon Brown andEd Miliband respectively. She wasMember of Parliament (MP) forCamberwell and Peckham (formerlyPeckham) from 1982 to 2024, during which time she held variousCabinet andShadow Cabinet positions, and was appointed to theHouse of Lords as alife peer in 2024.
Born in London to a doctor and a barrister, Harman was privately educated atSt Paul's Girls' School before going on to study politics at theUniversity of York. After working for Brent Law Centre, she became a legal officer for theNational Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), a role in which she was found incontempt of court following action pursued byMichael Havers, a formerAttorney General. She successfully took a case,Harman v United Kingdom, to theEuropean Commission of Human Rights, where she argued that Havers had breached her right to freedom of expression. The case was settled after the British government agreed to change the law.[1]
Harman was elected as MP for Peckham ata 1982 by-election. She was made a shadow social services minister in 1984 and a shadow health minister in 1987. UnderJohn Smith, she wasShadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and, underTony Blair, asShadow Employment Secretary,Shadow Health Secretary andShadow Social Security Secretary respectively. Following the1997 general election victory, she was appointedSecretary of State for Social Security and the first everMinister for Women, until 1998 when she left the Cabinet. In 2001, she was appointedSolicitor General for England and Wales, until 2005 when she becameMinister of State for Constitutional Affairs. She ran in the2007 deputy leadership election and defeated five other candidates, ultimately defeating health secretaryAlan Johnson, by a narrow margin.Gordon Brown, who waselected as party leader, appointed herLeader of the House of Commons,Lord Privy Seal,Minister for Women and Equality andChairman of the Labour Party.
Upon defeat at the2010 general election, Brown resigned as party leader and Harman, asDeputy Leader of the Labour Party, became the actingleader of the Labour Party andLeader of the Opposition until the election ofEd Miliband. She subsequently served asShadow Deputy Prime Minister, combining the position with that ofShadow International Development Secretary from 2010 to 2011 and thenShadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary from 2011 to 2015. In 2014, Harman expressed regret after it was revealed that thePaedophile Information Exchange had affiliated status within the NCCL while she had been legal officer. Following Labour's defeat at the2015 general election, Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Harman again became acting party leader and Leader of the Opposition. She also resigned as deputy leader, promptinga concurrent deputy leadership election. Harman stood down as an MP at the2024 general election and was appointed to the House of Lords later that year.
Harriet Ruth Harman was born at 108 Harley Street in London, and privately educated atSt Paul's Girls' School.[2] She is a daughter ofJohn B. Harman, aHarley Street doctor,[3] and his wife Annanée Spicer, a barrister, who gave up practising when she had children and who was theLiberal Party candidate forHertford in the1964 general election.[4] They both hadnon-conformist backgrounds – Harman's paternal grandfather Nathaniel Bishop Harman, anophthalmic surgeon, was a prominentUnitarian[5] and the Spicer family were well-knownCongregationalists. Her paternal aunt wasElizabeth Longford (née Harman), the wife of former Labour ministerFrank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and her cousins include the writers LadyAntonia Fraser, LadyRachel Billington andThomas Pakenham, Earl of Longford.[6] Her great-grandfather was Arthur Chamberlain, an industrialist.[7] Harman is a great-great-niece of the Liberal statesmanJoseph Chamberlain, and is a cousin once removed of former prime ministerNeville Chamberlain and former Foreign SecretaryAusten Chamberlain. She is also related to Liberal politicianRichard Chamberlain, MP.[8] Through her uncleLord Pakenham she is related by marriage to former prime ministerDavid Cameron, whom she faced asLeader of the Opposition. Her cousin Rachel Billington is also godmother to former prime ministerBoris Johnson.
Harman gained a2:1 BA in Politics from theUniversity of York. During her time at York, she was a member ofGoodricke College and was involved with student politics. After York, Harman went on to qualify as a solicitor and worked for BrentLaw Centre in London. Between 1978 and 1982, she was employed as a legal officer for theNational Council for Civil Liberties. In this capacity, and just before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982, she represented a prisoner who was kept in solitary confinement against theHome Office. However, she was found incontempt of court for sharing documents she had read aloud in the courtroom with a journalist. The contempt of court action was pursued byMichael Havers, a formerAttorney General for England and Wales.[9] Harman was thus the subject of numerous parliamentary questions and debates before she became an MP, including at aPMQ in February 1982.[10] Harman subsequently took the case to theEuropean Court of Human Rights, successfully arguing Havers had breached her right to freedom of expression. The case is considered a significant case in British public law.[9]
Harman was later involved in aEuropean Court of Human Rights case againstMI5. During a 1984 television interview byCathy Massiter, it was revealed personal files were held by MI5 on Harman and on the (by then former) General Secretary of the NCCL,Patricia Hewitt.[11] They successfully argued that there had been an infringement of their rights because MI5 was not a legally constituted and democratically accountable organisation, this being the minimum standard in democracy.[11] The success of the case led to enactment of theSecurity Service Act 1989.[11]
Harry Lamborn, the Labour MP forPeckham, died on 21 August 1982. In the subsequentby-election held on 28 October 1982, Harman was elected to succeed Lamborn with 11,349 votes (50.34%), a majority of 3,931 overSocial Democratic candidateDick Taverne, a former Labour MP forLincoln. TheConservative Party candidate wasJohn Redwood, who came third, and went on to be elected MP forWokingham in 1987.
In 1984, Harman became a Shadow Social Services minister and served as a Shadow Health minister in 1987. Following the1992 general election she entered theShadow Cabinet asShadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992–1994) and later served asShadow Employment Secretary (1994–1995),Shadow Health Secretary (1995–1996) andShadow Social Security Secretary (1996–1997).[12]
Following Labour's victory in the1997 general election, she becameSecretary of State for Social Security and the first everMinister for Women.[13] She was given the task of reforming the Welfare State. During this time, her more notable policies included introducing a minimum income guarantee andwinter fuel payments for the elderly. It was later ruled that the fuel payments policy breached Europeansex discrimination laws in that men had to wait five years longer to receive them than women.[14] The policy was amended so both sexes qualified at age 60. She also headed upNew Labour's controversial cut to single parent benefit despite the majority of those affected being women.[15][16][17] There was public outcry at this perceived attacked on the living standards of some of the poorest women and children. According toThe Independent, a group of women protesters shouted "Labour scum"[18] as the measure was approved inParliament – albeit with a rebellion of 47 Labour MPs and the abstention of many others.[15][19] Harman was sacked from the position in 1998. According to many in the media, this was the result of a series of public rows with junior ministerFrank Field, though others also cited her decision to cut benefits to lone parents as a factor.[20] Harman voted with the party on all but a few instances during its period in government.
Harman made a return to the front bench following the2001 general election, with her appointment to the office ofSolicitor General, thus becoming the first female Solicitor General. In accordance with convention, she was appointed asQueen's Counsel, although she had previously 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.
Following the2005 general election, she became a Minister of State in theDepartment for Constitutional Affairs with responsibilities including constitutional reform, legal aid and court processes and she representedLord Falconer in the House of Commons on the frontbench.
On 16 March 2006, Harman relinquished her ministerial responsibilities for electoral administration and reform of theHouse of Lords. She stated that this was to avoid any potential conflict of interest after her husbandJack Dromey, the Treasurer of the Labour Party, announced that he would be investigating a number ofloans made to the Labour Party that had not been disclosed to party officers. She retained her other responsibilities.[21]
Harman announced her intention tostand for Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party whenJohn Prescott stood down.[22] She commissioned an opinion poll which found that she would be the most electorally popular potential deputy leader, a point she used in her campaign.[23][24]
While she supported theIraq War, during the Deputy Leadership campaign, she said that she would not have done so had she known about the lack of concrete evidence of weapons of mass destruction.[25][26]
Harman did not have the support of any major unions, and helped to fund her campaign by taking out a personal loan of £10,000[27] and a £40,000 extension to her mortgage.[28] Harman failed to report some donations and loans on time, and was subject to anElectoral 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.[29]
On 24 June 2007, in a close contest Harman was elected Deputy Leader.[30]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 as elected with 50.43% of the vote to Johnson's 49.56%[31]
In November 2007, it emerged thatproperty developerDavid Abrahams' secretary Janet Kidd had donated £5,000 to Harman's successful deputy leadership bid. After an investigation byThe Mail on Sunday newspaper into other donations made by people associated with Abrahams, and Prime MinisterGordon Brown's assertion that all such monies would be returned, Harman issued a statement saying she accepted the donation on 4 July "in good faith," had registered the monies with theElectoral Commission and the Register of Members' Interests, and that she "was not aware of any funding arrangements... betweenDavid Abrahams and Janet Kidd".[32]
Harman was known as a long-term supporter ofGordon Brown and is regarded as a personal friend.[33] On 28 June 2007, after she became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Brown was appointed prime minister, Harman joinedBrown's Cabinet asLeader of the House of Commons,Lord Privy Seal andMinister for Women and Equality, and was alsoChairman of the Labour Party. Unlike the previous Deputy Leader,John Prescott, Harman was not madeDeputy Prime Minister.
When Harman, as Leader of the House of Commons, stood in forGordon Brown duringPrime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 2 April 2008 (due to the Prime Minister attending aNATO summit inRomania), she became the first female Labour Minister to take Prime Minister's Questions. She subsequently repeated this during Brown's absences.
Harman attacked the Conservative Party at theLabour Party Conference 2007, referring to them as the "nasty party" and suggesting that there would be little competition at the next election.[34]
On 1 April 2008 theDaily Mail reported that Harman had decided to wear akevlar-reinforcedstab vest while touring herPeckham constituency under police guard. On 2 AprilThe Guardian relayed information from theMetropolitan Police that "the type of Met Vest she wore over her jacket protected her from knife attacks and bullets, and, for her at least, was optional".[35] Harman compared the decision to wearing ahard hat while touring a building site, which led the BBC'sJohn Humphrys to respond, during an interview forBBC Radio 4, "You wear a hard hat on a building site because... there is the danger that something might drop on your head. You don't need to wear a bullet-proof vest on the streets of London, do you!" Harman told the BBC that the neighbourhood police team she was with put on their stab vests and gave her one to wear as well.[36]
In April 2008, Harman's blog was hacked and changed to state that she had joined the Conservative Party. Harman later admitted when questioned bySky News that the incident was a result of her using "Harriet" and "Harman" as her username and password.[37] The hacker was ConservativeKemi Badenoch, who was elected as MP forSaffron Walden in 2017. Badenoch confessed to the hacking in an April 2018 interview withCore Politics and later offered Harman an apology, which she accepted.[38][39][40][41]
During thelate-2000s recession, and following a government report which suggested that women were twice as likely to lose their jobs as men and feared losing their jobs more than men, Harman stated: "We will not allow women to become the victims of this recession".[42] However, some statistics contradicted her position, including the Office for National Statistics report on the issue which stated "the economic downturn in 2008 has impacted less on women in employment than men". According to the ONS, men were losing their jobs at twice the rate of women. The Government Equalities Office insisted the ONS figures did not render pointless its efforts to help women.[43][44]
In June 2009,Sir Michael Scholar, head of theUK Statistics Authority, wrote to Harman to warn her that different headline figures used by the ONS and Government Equalities Office with regards to pay differentiation between men and women might undermine public trust in official statistics. The GEO's headline figure was 23%, which was based on median hourly earnings of all employees, not the 12.8%, based on median hourly earnings of full-time employees only, used by the ONS. Scholar wrote: "It is the Statistics Authority's view that use of the 23% on its own, without qualification, risks giving a misleading quantification of the gender pay gap".[45][46]
In January 2009, Harman proposed a rule change to exempt MPs' expenses from theFreedom of Information Act. Her parliamentary order aimed to remove "most expenditure information held by either House of Parliament from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act". It meant that, under the law, journalists and members of the public would no longer be entitled to learn details of their MP's expenses. Labour MPs were to be pressured to vote for this measure by use of athree line whip. Her proposal was withdrawn when the Conservative Party said they would vote against, and in light of an online campaign bymySociety.[47] The failure of the motion led to thedisclosure of expenses of British members of parliament.
In December 2010, it emerged that Harman was amongst 40 MPs who had secretly repaid wrongly claimed expenses between 2008 and 2010. In November 2010, Harman's parliamentary private secretaryIan Lavery had blocked a motion designed to allow the repayments to be made public.[48]
Harman allegedly blocked a series of votes to liberalise Britain's abortion laws via theHuman Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (now Act).[49][50] Thepro-choice amendments proposed byDiane Abbott MP,[51]Katy Clark MP andJohn McDonnell MP[52] included NC30 Amendment of the Abortion Act 1967: Application to Northern Ireland.[53] It was reported that theLabour Government at the time asked MPs not to table these pro-choice amendments (and at least untilThird Reading) and then allegedly used parliamentary mechanisms in order to prevent a vote accordingly.[49]
As part of a proposedEquality Bill, Harman announced a consultation on changing the existing discrimination laws, including options forreverse discrimination in employment. Under the proposals, employers would be legally allowed to discriminate in favour of a job candidate on the basis of their race or gender where the candidates were otherwise equally qualified. Employers would not be required to use these powers, but would be able to do so without the threat of legal action for discriminatory practices. The white paper also proposed measures to end age discrimination, promote transparency in organisations and introduce a new equality duty on the public sector.[54]
It was argued by critics that these changes could face a challenge under Article 14 of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion and on several other criteria.[55] Michael Millar, writing inThe Spectator, was of the opinion that "the Equality Bill before parliament today gives employers the right to choose an ethnic minority candidate or female candidate over a white male, specifically because they are an ethnic minority or female."[56]
Harman also commissioned a report on allowing political parties to draw up all-black shortlists[57] designed to increase the number of black MPs in Westminster. A further report proposed extended the arrangement allowingall-women shortlists beyond 2015[58] which failed to have any impact in the 2010 general election.[59] These proposals were supported by members of the three major parties, though no others allowed discrimination in their shortlists.[60] Inside the Labour Party, Harman said she does "not agree with all-male leaderships" because men "cannot be left to run things on their own"; and that, consequently, one of Labour's top two posts should always be held by a woman.[61] She had also stated that the collapse of Lehman Brothers might have been averted had it been 'Lehman Sisters'. These comments caused accusations of sexism and "insidious bigotry".[62]
Following the resignation ofGordon Brown as prime minister andLeader of the Labour Party on 11 May 2010, Harman automatically became the temporary leader of the party as well as theLeader of the Opposition, entitling her to the salary and government car that come with the role. Although she was informally described in the media as 'Acting' Leader, she was fully Leader by the terms of the party's constitution, albeit on a temporary basis, as was the case withMargaret Beckett in 1994.[63]
Following Brown's resignation, she quickly announced that she would remain Deputy Leader rather than standing forelection as Leader. Her only public explanation was the assertion that: "You can't run for leader at the same time as being deputy leader".[64]
She nominatedDiane Abbott, MP forHackney North and Stoke Newington, to prevent the election from being all male. But she nonetheless asserted her intention to remain neutral throughout the contest and said, "This is a very crucial period and we have got five fantastic candidates. All of them would make excellent leaders of the party."[65]
FollowingEd Miliband's election as leader, she returned to her role as Deputy Leader, shadowingNick Clegg asDeputy Prime Minister and with the title of Deputy Leader of the Opposition.[66] When Miliband assigned portfolios on 8 October 2010, he appointed herShadow Secretary of State for International Development.[67] In 2010, Harman referred toDanny Alexander as a "ginger rodent" in a speech to theLabour Party conference. This was greeted with cheers and laughter from the conference, but theLiberal Democrats and theScottish National Party described them asgingerism and "anti-Scottish". Harman apologised for the offence caused. In 2011, Harman was moved to becomeShadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2014, she accusedNick Clegg of turning into a Tory during Prime Minister's Questions.[68]
In March 2014, an article from the Daily Mail exposed that a 1979 letter from paedophile group supporter contained Ms Harman's initials.[69] Harman denied allegations that she had supported thePaedophile Information Exchange (PIE) when the advocacy group was affiliated withLiberty, while she was the pressure group's Legal Officer from 1978 to 1982. Both theDaily Mail andThe Daily Telegraph also claimed thatJack Dromey MP (her partner) and former Health SecretaryPatricia Hewitt had offered support to apologists for the sexual abuse of children while they were working for NCCL.The Guardian also states that in an NCCL briefing note dated 1978, Harman urged amendments to a 1978 Child Protection Bill declaring that "images of children should only be considered pornographic if it could be proven the subject suffered", which Harman says was an argument intended to protect from "unintended consequences" such as parents being prosecuted for taking pictures of their children on the beach or in the bath.[70]
Most of the controversy comes after the NCCL passed motion 39 in support of PIE's rights.
Motion 39 stated:
This AGM reaffirms the right of free discussion and freedom to hold meetings for all organisations and individuals doing so within the law. Accordingly, whilst reaffirming the NCCL policy on the age of consent and the rights of children; particularly the need to protect those of prepubertal age, this AGM condemns the physical and other attacks on those who have discussed or attempted to discuss paedophilia, and reaffirms the NCCL's condemnation of harassment and unlawful attacks on such persons.[71]
In a television interview, Harman said she had "nothing to apologise for," stating: "I very much regret that this vile organisation, PIE, ever existed and that it ever had anything to do with NCCL, but it did not affect my work at NCCL."[72] Harman stated that while she did support the equalisation of the age of consent for gay men she had never campaigned for the age of consent to go below the age of 16 and accused theDaily Mail of trying to make her "guilty by way of association".[73]Ed Miliband backed Harman and stated that she had "huge decency and integrity".[73]
In the2015 general election, Harman led theWoman to Woman campaign involved a pinkbattle bus visiting constituencies.[74] Following the poor election result andEd Miliband's resignation, Harman again became acting leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition after announcing she would stand down from the role once a leadership election had taken place.[75] While interim leader, she made the decision for Labour to abstain, rather than oppose, theWelfare Reform and Work Bill 2015, leading to 48 Labour MPs defying the whip.[76] Harman also made the decision that Labour would vote for having aEuropean Union membership referendum, reversing Labour's pre-election opposition to an EU referendum.[77][78] After standing down, she became Chair of theJoint Committee on Human Rights in October 2015.[79][80]
As the holder of the record as longest-ever continuously serving female MP in theHouse of Commons, Harman was dubbed the "Mother of the House" by Prime MinisterTheresa May on 13 June 2017.[81]
On 10 September 2019, Harman announced that she would stand to be the nextSpeaker of the House of Commons following the announcement by the current SpeakerJohn Bercow of his intention to resign on 31 October 2019.[82] She withdrew from the vote after the second ballot, having the lowest votes of all of the surviving candidates.
In December 2021, Harman announced she would be stepping down as an MP at the2024 general election.[83]
Harman supported an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill 2019 to implement the verdict ofR v Brown.R v Brown revisited the conviction of the earlierOperation Spanner, in which five men were convicted of engaging in homosexual sadomasochistic practices with consensual partners. Operation Spanner occurred in the 1980s and had been since criticised for its attitudes towards homosexuality.R v Brown re-affirmed that adults cannot consent toactual bodily harm. The changes were intended to prevent use of therough sex murder defence, believing people should be prosecuted for murder even if they did not intend to kill their partners.[84][85] However, the bill has been criticised as "Bad law" and "Gesture politics" as it does not change the fact that intent to kill or inflict grevious bodily harm is required for a murder conviction.[86]
Harman wrote to the Attorney General to complain about anunduly lenient sentence of a man whose partner died while engaging in erotic strangulation. The sentence had been reduced from seven years to four years eight months in light of the man's guilty plea and self-referral to the police.[87]
Harman chaired thePrivileges Committee of the House of Commons overthe investigation into Boris Johnson's breach of lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerning four specific assertions made by the then Prime MinisterBoris Johnson atPrime Minister's Questions about "the legality of activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations", events commonly referred to asPartygate. The investigation is concerned with whether Johnson misled the Commons when he made these statements.
The Committee published their final report on 15 June.[88] Johnson resigned over the investigation after having been sent a draft copy of the committee's report. The Committee had voted on the final report text and unanimously supported it. They concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled the House, a contempt of Parliament. They said that, had he still been an MP, they would have recommended a 90 day suspension.[88] If that had happened, it would have been the second longest suspension since 1949.[89][90][88][91]
The Committee concluded that Johnson's actions were "more serious" because they were committed when he was prime minister. They noted that there was no precedent for a PM being found to have deliberately misled Parliament.[92] The report stated that Johnson tried to "rewrite the meaning" of COVID rules "to fit his own evidence" for example that "a leaving gathering or a gathering to boost morale was a lawful reason to hold a gathering."[93] They concluded he was guilty of further contempts of Parliament and that he breached confidentiality requirements by criticising the Committee's provisional findings when he resigned. They said he was complicit in a "campaign of abuse" against those investigating him.[88]
The Commons debated the report on 19 June 2023. Labour forced a vote and the Commons voted 354 to 7 in support, with a large number of abstentions. This was an absolute majority of the Commons. 118 Conservative MPs, including 15 ministers, voted for the report and 225 abstained. Then prime ministerRishi Sunak had earlier said he had other commitments, and did not attend the debate and refused to say how he would have voted.
After standing down as an MP, Harman was nominated for alife peerage in the2024 Dissolution Honours.[94][95][96] She was createdBaroness Harman, of Peckham in the London Borough of Southwark, on 19 August 2024.[97] In 2025, Harman proposed an amendment to Labour'sHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill that would mandate the government to introduce proposals to remove the right for 26 Church of England bishops to sit in the Lordsex officio asLords Spiritual. This amendment is in line with Labour's manifesto commitment to proceed with wider reforms of the upper chamber.[98]
In 2025, she was appointed byDavid Lammy as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls.[99] Having previously described herself as a detractor ofPeter Mandelson, she stated onBeth Rigby's podcastElectoral Dysfunction that his failure to resign over his ties to the sex offenderJeffrey Epstein was "shameful". She argued that Mandelson should have known the gravity of his relationship with Epstein and stepped down in the "national interest" rather than being forced to leave. She described his appointment as UK ambassador to the US as a "horrible, awful episode" and expressed disbelief that Mandelson would send messages of "love and support" to a convicted sex offender, particularly as she serves as the UK's special envoy for women and girls. She publicly sided with Prime MinisterKeir Starmer's decision to sack Mandelson, saying, "it was right that Keir Starmer sacked him".[100]
Harman marriedJack Dromey in 1982 in Brent, after meeting him on the picket line of theGrunwick dispute in 1977; she was legal advisor to the Grunwick Strike Committee.[20] They had three children: Harry (born February 1983), Joseph (born November 1984) and Amy (born January 1987). Harry and Amy have Harman's surname.[101] Labour colleaguePatricia Hewitt is godmother to one of her children.[20] She sent Harry to thegrant-maintained Roman CatholicLondon Oratory School and Joseph to the state selectiveSt Olave's Grammar School,Orpington.[101]
Harman has owned a number of houses and properties, including her home inHerne Hill, south London and a house inSuffolk.[102][103]
Harman is a committedfeminist, having said, "I am in the Labour Party because I am a feminist. I am in the Labour Party because I believe in equality."[104][105] In 2017, her bookA Woman's Work was published. It is her personal examination of women's progressive politics over the last thirty years.[106][107]
In late 1988, Harman was absent from the Commons for some time and on 26 December it was reported that she was suffering pneumonia brought on bypsittacosis.[108]
In 2012, Harman was awarded theFreedom of the Borough ofSouthwark.[109][110]
Since 2024, Harman has co-presented thepodcast, "Electoral Dysfunction" along sideRuth Davidson andBeth Rigby.
In 2003, Harman was fined £400 and banned from driving for seven days after being convicted of driving at 99 mph (159 km/h) on a motorway, 29 mph (47 km/h) above thespeed limit.[111]
In 2007, Harman was issued with a £60fixed penalty notice and given threepenalty points on her licence for driving at 50 mph (80 km/h) in a temporary 40 mph (64 km/h) zone. Harman paid the fine several months late and avoided appearing atIpswich magistrates court.[112] Harman was again caught breaking the speed limit the following April, this time in a 30 mph zone, receiving a further 3 points on her driving licence.[113]
In January 2010 Harman pleaded guilty todriving without due care and attention in relation to an incident on 3 July 2009 where she struck another vehicle whilstdriving using a mobile phone, she admitted the offence in court.[114][115] Harman was fined £350, ordered to pay £70 costs, a £15victim surcharge and had three points added to her licence.[116] Road safety organisationBrake criticised the leniency of the punishment and decision to drop the charge of driving whilst using a mobile phone.[117] The judge defended the decision stating: "Ms Harman's guilty plea to driving without due care and attention included her admitting that she had been using a mobile phone at the time".[118]
Harman was portrayed byDeborah Findlay in the 2015Channel 4 television filmCoalition.[119]
When the party is in opposition and the party leader, for whatever reason, becomes permanently unavailable, the deputy leader shall automatically become party leader on a pro-tem basis.
Chair, Human Rights (Joint Committee) (29 Oct 2015 to 3 May 2017)"
"Chair, Human Rights (Joint Committee) (1 Nov 2017 to 6 Nov 2019)
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