The Right Honourable Michael Gove MP
Gove speaking at the Big Society policy launch, March 2010
Secretary of State for Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Ed Balls (Children, Schools and Families)
Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
In office 2 July 2007 – 11 May 2010
Leader	David Cameron
Preceded by	David Willetts
Succeeded by	Ed Balls (Education)
Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Nick Hawkins
Majority	17,289 (31.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1967-08-26) 26 August 1967 (age 44) Edinburgh, Scotland
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Sarah Vine
Children	2
Alma mater	Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Journalist
Religion	Anglican

Michael Andrew Gove (born 26 August 1967) is a British politician, who currently serves as the Secretary of State for Education and as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Surrey Heath constituency. He is also an author and former Times journalist who remains on friendly terms with proprietor Rupert Murdoch.^[1]

Born in Edinburgh, Gove was raised in Aberdeen and made an early career as a journalist. He was first elected to parliament in the 2005 general election, as the MP for the safe Conservative seat of Surrey Heath in South East England. He was first promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2007 under David Cameron, as the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

After the formation of the coalition government in 2010, Gove was appointed the Secretary of State for Education.

Early life and career outside Parliament[link]

Gove was born in Edinburgh. At four months old, he was adopted by a Labour-supporting family in Aberdeen, where he was brought up.^[2] His father ran a fish processing business; his mother was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen before working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.^[3]

He was initially state school educated in Aberdeen, later attending the independent Robert Gordon's College, to which he won a scholarship.^[2] From 1985 to 1988 he studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford,^[4] where he served as President of the Oxford Union.

Gove was a trainee reporter at the Press and Journal in Aberdeen, where he spent several months on strike in a dispute over union recognition and representation.^[5] He joined The Times in 1996 as a leader writer and has been its comment editor, news editor, Saturday editor and assistant editor. He has also written a weekly column on politics and current affairs for The Times and contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine and The Spectator. He has also written a sympathetic biography of Michael Portillo and a critical study of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Price of Peace, for which he won the Charles Douglas-Home Prize.^[4] Gove was instrumental in the launch of the new centre-right magazine Standpoint, and serves on its advisory board.^{[citation needed]}

He has worked for the BBC's Today programme, On The Record, Scottish Television and the Channel 4 monologue programme A Stab In The Dark, alongside David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod, and was a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and Newsnight Review on BBC Two.^[3]

Gove was a member of the winning team in Grampian Television's quiz show Top Club,^{[citation needed]} and played the school chaplain in the 1995 family comedy A Feast at Midnight.^[6]

Political career[link]

Gove joined the Conservative Party at university and was secretary of Aberdeen South Young Conservatives.^{[citation needed]} He has helped to write speeches for Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet ministers, including Peter Lilley and Michael Howard.^{[citation needed]} When applying for a job at the Conservative Research Department he was told he was "insufficiently political" and "insufficiently Conservative", consequently he turned to journalism.^{[citation needed]}

Gove was previously chairman of Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank launched in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Member of Parliament[link]

Gove entered Parliament in the 2005 general election as Conservative member for the safe seat of Surrey Heath.^{[citation needed]}

On 2 July 2007, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (a new department set up by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown) shadowing Ed Balls, a key supporter of Brown^{[citation needed]}. Prior to the 2010 general election, most of his questions in House of Commons debates concerned children, schools and families, education, local government, Council Tax, Foreign Affairs, and the environment.^[7]

In 2008, in an attempt to split the Labour Party, Gove suggested that senior Blairites who might become isolated should their party move to the left following a general election defeat, could be offered a role in a future Conservative government.^[8]

Gove is seen as part of an influential set of young up-and-coming Tories, sometimes referred to as the 'Notting Hill Set', which includes David Cameron, George Osborne, Edward Vaizey, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone.^{[citation needed]} They are perceived as modernisers on social issues, and humanitarian interventionists in foreign policy. When Cameron was elected leader in December 2005, he appointed Gove the housing spokesman shadowing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.^{[citation needed]} Michael Portillo predicted that Gove will one day lead the Conservative party.^{[citation needed]}

Secretary of State for Education[link]

Gove is the current Secretary of State for Education. Following his appointment in May 2010, he rebranded his department,^[9] announced plans to convert schools rated as 'outstanding' by Ofsted into academies,^[10] and cut the previous Government's school building programme.^[11] He was forced to apologise, however, when the list of terminated school building projects he had released was found to be inaccurate.^[12]

In July 2010, Gove said that Labour had failed in its attempt to break the link between social class and school achievement despite spending billions of pounds. Quoting research, he indicated that by the age of 6, children of low ability from affluent homes were still out-performing brighter children from poor backgrounds. In a Commons Education Select Committee he said that this separation of achievement grew larger throughout pupils' school careers, stating, "In effect, rich thick kids do better than poor clever children when they arrive at school [and] the situation as they go through gets worse,".^[13]

During the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, Gove announced that school curriculum would be restructured, and that study of authors such as Byron, Keats, Jane Austen, Dickens and Thomas Hardy would be reintroduced to English lessons as part of a plan to improve children’s grasp of English literature and language. Children who fail to write coherently and grammatically, and who are weak in spelling, would be penalised under new examinations. Historian Simon Schama would give advice to government to ensure that pupils learnt Britain’s "island story". Standards in mathematics and science would also be strengthened. He explained that this was needed because left-wing ideologues had undermined education. Theirs was the view, he thought, that schools "shouldn’t be doing anything so old-fashioned as passing on knowledge, requiring children to work hard, or immersing them in anything like dates in history or times tables in mathematics. These ideologues may have been inspired by generous ideals but the result of their approach has been countless children condemned to a prison house of ignorance."^[14]

In a November 2010 White paper, Gove declared reforms would include the compulsory study of foreign languages up to the age of 16, and a shake-up of league tables in which schools are ranked higher for the number of pupils taking GCSEs in five core subjects: English; mathematics; science; a language; and one of the humanities. He also announced that experts such as historian Simon Schama will be brought in to review the curriculum, and that targets are to be introduced for primary schools for the first time. Additionally, trainee teachers will spend more time in the classroom, there would be more assessment of teacher training applicants—including tests of character and emotional intelligence—and former troops will be offered sponsorship to retrain as teachers to improve discipline. Teachers are also expected to receive guidance on how to search pupils for more items, including mobile phones and pornography, and when they can use force.^[15]

In December 2010, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, he claimed that "Like Chairman Mao, we’ve embarked on a Long March to reform our education system", apparently unaware that Mao's cultural revolution closed China's education system for ten years and led to the deaths of many teachers.^[16][17][18]

In February 2011 a judicial review deemed his decision to axe Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects in six local authority areas was unlawful as he had failed to consult before imposing the cuts.^[19] The judge also said that in five of the cases, the failure was "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power" and that "however pressing the economic problems, there was no overriding public interest which precluded consultation or justifies the lack of any consultation".^[19] The Government will have to reconsider but it said it had won the case on substantial issues.^[19]

In March 2011 Gove was criticised for not understanding the importance of school architecture and having previously misrepresented the cost.^[20] In February 2011, he gave "not-quite-true information to Parliament" by saying that one individual made £1m in one year when the true figure was £700k for 5 advisers at different times over a 4 year period.^[20] He told a Free Schools conference that 'no one in this room is here to make architects richer' and specifically mentioned architect Richard Rogers.^[21]

In April 2011 Gove criticised schools for not studying pre-20th century classics and blamed “England’s constricted and unreformed exam system” for failing to encourage children to read. Gove also blamed an “anti knowledge culture” for reducing achievement and said children benefited when expectations were set higher.^[22] In June 2011 his "ignorance of science" was criticised after he called for students to have "a rooting in the basic scientific principles" and by way of example assigned Lord Kelvin's laws of thermodynamics to Sir Isaac Newton.^[23]

In 2011 Gove planned to provide each school in the United Kingdom with a copy of the King James Bible, personally inscribed by him, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its translation into English.^[24][25] The project ran into difficulty when the education secretary was required to find private funding to complete it.^[24][25] The cost of the project was reported as being £337,000.^[25] It was reported that the Bibles were to remain in overseas storage until private funding was found to support the books' distribution.^[24][25]

In May 2012 Gove, giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry warned Lord Justice Leveson "the cure might be worse than the disease", advising the judge against too much extra regulation on the press. The former journalist, added that some cases of press misbehaviour were “deplorable” but argued that these could be punished under existing laws, such as defamation.^[26]

Expenses claims[link]

Michael Gove claimed £7,000 for furnishing a London property before reportedly 'flipping' his designated second home to a house in his constituency, a property for which he claimed around £13,000 to cover stamp duty.^[27] Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under the Commons rule. Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that moving house was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties".^[27] While he was moving between homes, on one occasion he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa following a constituency engagement, charging the taxpayer more than £500 per night's stay.^[27]

Political views[link]

Unionism[link]

Michael Gove is a Scot who believes that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom because Scotland's strengths complement those of other parts of the UK.^[28]

Liberty[link]

Gove has expressed views that the state should not generally interfere in domestic affairs. He purported to campaign for personal freedom in certain matters, opposing the introduction of ID cards under the Identity Cards Act 2006, and wrote that "Section 28 is a nonsense", a reference to an enactment that prevented local authorities from providing funding for the positive portrayal of homosexuality, indicating a willingness to permit the expansion of the role of the state.^[29] He shared a flat with Conservative Ivan Massow who later defected to Labour over Section 28 and Nicholas Boles, and said "The only sustainable ethical foundation for society is a belief in the innate worth and dignity of every individual."^[30]

Giving evidence before the Leveson Inquiry in May 2012, Gove said he was "unashamedly on the side of those who say that we should think very carefully before legislation and regulation because the cry 'Something must be done' often leads to people doing something which isn't always wise."^[31]

Education[link]

As Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, he advocated the introduction of a Swedish-style voucher system, whereby parents can choose where their child should be educated, with the state paying what they would have cost in a state-school. He has also advocated Swedish style "free schools", to be managed by parents and funded by the state,^[32] with the possibility that such schools may be allowed to be run on a for-profit model.^[33]

Foreign policy[link]

Considered by some to be a British neo-conservative,^[34] he called for early intervention against Saddam Hussein and stated in October 2004 of Tony Blair: "I can't hold it back any more; I love Tony!" He is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates an active approach to the spread of democracy, and an adviser to the Atlantic Bridge, which works to affirm the Transatlantic alliance.

He was a proponent of the view that the invasion of Iraq would bring peace and democracy both to Iraq and the wider Middle East. In December 2008 Gove wrote that declarations of either victory or defeat in Iraq in 2003 were premature, and with the benefit of hindsight "The liberation of Iraq has actually been that rarest of things – a proper British foreign policy success. Next year, while the world goes into recession, Iraq is likely to enjoy 10% GDP growth. Alone in the Arab Middle East, it is now a fully functioning democracy with a free press, properly contested elections and an independent judiciary ... Sunni and Shia contend for power in parliament, not in street battles. The ingenuity, idealism and intelligence of the Iraqi people can now find an outlet in a free society rather than being deployed, as they were for decades, simply to ensure survival in a fascist republic that stank of fear."^[35] Michael Gove has described himself as "a proud Zionist", ^[36] and supports the United Jewish Israel Appeal's fundraising activities.^[37]

He has been accused of harbouring hostile attitude towards Islam and Muslims after his book Celsius 7/7,^[38] despite distinguishing between 'the great historical faith' of Islam which he claims has 'brought spiritual nourishment to millions', and Islamism, a 'totalitarian ideolog[y]' which turns to 'hellish violence and oppression' like the 20th century ideologies of National Socialism and Communism.^[39]

He has mourned the First World War as a great tragedy, in which not only did millions die, but the old, largely liberal, tolerant and materially progressive order perished.^[40]

Political philosophy[link]

During the 2008 Conservative Party Conference, he argued that Edmund Burke (a philosopher who commented on organic society and the French Revolution) was the greatest conservative ever.

Asked about those who believe 'Marx was right all along', he argued that Marxists were guilty of ignoring the systematic abuses and poverty of centrally planned economies, and criticised Eric Hobsbawm, saying that "only when Hobsbawm weeps hot tears for a life spent serving an ideology of wickedness will he ever be worth listening to."^[41]

Haves and have yachts[link]

In January 2012, Mr Gove's ideas for a new Royal Yacht costing £60m were made public.^[42] Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the idea “a case of the haves and the have yachts".^[43]

Personal life[link]

Gove is married to Sarah Vine, a writer on The Times;^[44] they have a daughter and son.^[45] Having been raised in the Church of Scotland, he now worships in the Church of England, and regularly attends St Mary Abbots^[46] church, Kensington, London.

His wealth is estimated at £1 million.^[47][48] Gove is a Queens Park Rangers F.C supporter.^[49]

Bibliography[link]

• Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right (1995) ISBN 1-85702-335-8
• The Price of Peace (2000) ISBN 1-903219-15-9
• A Blue Tomorrow – New Visions for Modern Conservatives (2001) (ed. with Edward Vaizey and Nicholas Boles) ISBN 1-84275-027-5
• Celsius 7/7 (2006) ISBN 0-297-85146-2

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Gove MP Official Website
• Profile at the Conservative Party
• Column archives in The Times
• Profile from The Economist
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted

v t e Cameron cabinet (list) Cameron · Clegg Alexander · Cable · Clarke · Davey · Duncan Smith · Gillan · Gove · Greening · Hague · Hammond · Hunt · Lansley · May · Mitchell · Moore · Osborne · Paterson · Pickles · Spelman · Strathclyde · Warsi Also attending: Letwin · Maude · McLoughlin · Willetts · Young When on agenda: Grieve Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement · Coalition government

The Right Honourable Harriet Harman QC MP
Shadow Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2010
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Jack Straw
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Ivan Lewis
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 June 2007
Leader	Gordon Brown Ed Miliband
Preceded by	John Prescott
Labour Party Chair
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 June 2007
Leader	Gordon Brown Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Hazel Blears
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Douglas Alexander
Succeeded by	Ivan Lewis
Leader of the Opposition
In office 11 May 2010 – 25 September 2010
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	David Cameron
Succeeded by	Ed Miliband
Leader of the House of Commons Lord Privy Seal
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Jack Straw
Succeeded by	Sir George Young
Minister for Women and Equality
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Ruth Kelly (Women)
Succeeded by	Theresa May (Women and Equalities)
Solicitor General
In office 11 June 2001 – 10 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ross Cranston
Succeeded by	Mike O'Brien
Secretary of State for Social Security
In office 3 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Peter Lilley
Succeeded by	Alastair Darling
Minister for Women
In office 3 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	The Baroness Jay of Paddington
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
In office 19 October 1995 – 2 May 1997
Leader	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Stephen Dorrell
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office 18 July 1992 – 19 October 1995
Leader	John Smith Margaret Beckett Tony Blair
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Alistair Darling
Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham Peckham (1982–1997)
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 October 1982
Preceded by	Harry Lamborn
Majority	17,187 (36.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1950-07-30) 30 July 1950 (age 61) Marylebone, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Jack Dromey (1982–present)
Relations	John B. Harman (father, deceased) and The Earl of Longford
Children	2 sons 1 daughter
Residence	Herne Hill, London, UK and Suffolk
Alma mater	University of York
Profession	Solicitor
Website	Official website

Harriet Ruth Harman QC (Hon.) (born 30 July 1950), is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessor Peckham constituency from 1982 to 1997. She was the interim Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 11 May to 25 September 2010, until Ed Miliband took over the role.

In 2007, she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and served in the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal, and Minister for Women and Equality from 2007 to 2010.^[1] Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Labour Leader on 11 May 2010 following his failure to win the general election (which ended in a hung parliament) five days earlier, Harman became interim Party Leader and interim Leader of the Opposition. She served in both roles until the Labour Party elected Ed Miliband Leader.

Miliband appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for International Development and in the 2011 reshuffle, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. She acts as stand-in Leader during Prime Minister's Questions during Milliband's absences, and shadows current Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg during Deputy Prime Minister's Questions.^[2][3] She is currently the longest continuously serving female MP in the House of Commons.

Early life[link]

Harman was born in London to Anna Harman (née Spicer), a solicitor, married to a Harley Street physician John Bishop Harman FRCP.^[4] Her parents each had non-conformist backgrounds – her grandfather, ophthalmic surgeon Nathaniel Bishop Harman, was a prominent Unitarian^[5] and the Spicer family were well known congregationalists. Her aunt was Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, and her cousins include writers Lady Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington, and Thomas Pakenham.^{[6][dead link]}

Harman attended a fee-paying public school, St Paul's Girls' School and then the University of York, where she gained a BA in Politics.

After qualifying as a lawyer, Harman worked for Brent Law Centre in London. Between 1978 and 1982, Harman was employed legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties. In this capacity, she was found in contempt of court by Mr Justice Hugh Park.^[7] before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982. However, Harman took the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and successfully argued that the prosecution had breached her right to freedom of expression. Harman v United Kingdom is still considered a significant case in British public law.^[8]

Harman was later involved in a European Court of Human Rights case against MI5 after it was revealed (during a television interview given) by whistleblower Cathy Massiter in 1984 that personal files were held by MI5 on Harman and on the by then former General Secretary of the NCCL, Patricia Hewitt.^[9] 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.^[9] The success of the case led to enactment of the Security Service Act 1989.^[9]

Member of Parliament[link]

In the by-election held on 28 October 1982, she was elected Member of Parliament for Peckham with a majority of 3,931 votes.

Harman is a committed feminist, having said, "I am in the Labour Party because I am a feminist. I am in the Labour Party because I believe in equality."^[10] Because of her unabashed feminism, her detractors have given her the nickname 'Harriet Harperson'^[11][12] and have referred to her as the 'patron saint of equality'.^[13]

Opposition frontbench (1984–97)[link]

In 1984, Harman became a Shadow Social Services minister and served as a Shadow Health minister in 1987. After the 1992 general election she entered the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992–1994) and later served as Shadow Employment Secretary (1994–1995), Shadow Health Secretary (1995–1996) and Shadow Social Security Secretary (1996–1997).^[14]

In government[link]

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. During this time, her more notable policies included introducing a minimum income guarantee and winter fuel payments for the elderly.^[15] It was later ruled that the fuel payments policy breached European sex discrimination laws in that men had to wait five years longer to receive them than women.^[16] The policy was amended so both sexes qualified at age 60. 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 minister Frank Field, though others also cited her decision to cut benefits to lone parents as a factor.^[17]

Harman made a return to the front bench after the 2001 general election, with her appointment to the office of Solicitor General, thus becoming the first female Solicitor General. In accordance with convention, she was appointed as Queen's Counsel, although she was never a barrister, 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.

After the 2005 general election, she became a Minister of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs with responsibilities including constitutional reform, legal aid and court processes and she represented Lord Falconer in the House of Commons on the frontbench.

On 16 March 2006, Harman relinquished her ministerial responsibilities for electoral administration and reform of the House of Lords. She stated that this was to avoid any potential conflict of interest after her husband Jack Dromey, the Treasurer of the Labour Party, announced that he would be investigating a number of loans made to the Labour Party that had not been disclosed to party officers. She retained her other responsibilities.^[18]

Return to cabinet[link]

Harman is known as a long term supporter of Gordon Brown and is regarded as a personal friend.^[19] On 28 June 2007, after she became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Brown became leader and was appointed Prime Minister, Harman joined Brown's Cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal and Minister for Women and Equality, and was also given the title of Labour Party Chair. Unlike the previous Deputy Leader, John Prescott, Harman was not given the title of 'Deputy Prime Minister'.

When Harman, as Leader of the House of Commons, stood in for Gordon Brown during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 2 April 2007 (due to the Prime Minister attending a NATO summit in Romania), 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 the Labour Party Conference 2007, referring to them as the "nasty party" and suggesting that there would be little competition at the next election.^[20]

On 1 April 2008 the Daily Mail reported that Harman had decided to wear a kevlar-reinforced stab vest while touring her Peckham constituency under police guard.^[21] On 2 April The Guardian relayed information from the Metropolitan 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".^[22] Harman compared the decision to wearing a hard hat while touring a building site, which led the BBC's John Humphrys to respond, during an interview for BBC 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.^[23]

In April 2008, Harman's blog was "hacked" and changed to state that she had joined the Conservative Party. Harman later admitted when questioned by Sky News that the incident was a result of her using "Harriet" and "Harman" as her username and password.^[24][25]

Return to opposition[link]

Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party on 11 May 2010, Harman automatically became the temporary leader of the party as well as the Leader of the Opposition, entitling her to the salary and government car that come with the role. Although she was acting Leader, she was fully Leader by the terms of the party's constitution, albeit on a temporary basis, as was the case with Margaret Beckett in 1994.^[26]

After Brown's resignation, she quickly announced that she would remain Deputy Leader rather than standing for election as Leader. Her only public explanation was the assertion that: “You can’t run for leader at the same time as being deputy leader”.^[27]

She nominated Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney 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."^[28]

Following Ed Miliband's election as leader, she returned to her role as Deputy Leader. When Miliband assigned portfolios on 8 October 2010, he appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.^[29] In 2010, Harman referred to Danny Alexander as a "ginger rodent" in a speech to the Scottish Labour Party conference. This was greeted with cheers and laughter from the conference, but the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party described them as gingerism and "anti-Scottish". Harman apologised for the offence caused. In 2011, Harman was moved to become Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport due to her good performance over the phone hacking scandal and her several attacks to the David Cameron's association with Andy Coulson^{[citation needed]}.

Legislation[link]

Equality Bill[link]

As part of a proposed Equality Bill, Harman announced a consultation on changing the existing discrimination laws, which included options for Reverse 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. Harman has stated that this proposal would not simply involve discrimination against white males, and that men will benefit in some circumstances; for example if a school wanted to balance a predominantly female workforce by discriminating in favour of employing a male teacher.^[30] The white paper also proposed measures to end age discrimination, promote transparency in organisations and introduce a new equality duty on the public sector.^[31] These changes, if made, could face a challenge under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion and on several other criteria.^[32] Michael Millar, writing in The 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."^[33] Some commentators, however, such as Graham Kirby, writing for the blogging site The Samosa, have defended the act as essentially meritocratic and necessary.^[34]

Harman also commissioned a report on allowing political parties to draw up all-black shortlists^[35] designed to increase the number of black MPs in Westminster. A further report proposed extended the arrangement allowing all-women shortlists beyond 2015^[36] which will fail to have any impact in the 2010 general election.^[37] These proposals are supported by members of the three major parties, though no others allow discrimination in their shortlists.^[38] Inside the Labour Party, Harman has 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.^[39]

She has backed plans for an increase in the number of homosexual MPs, and suggested that 39 openly gay MPs should be in the current Parliament. The target is based on an official estimate that six per cent of Britain is homosexual; however, such targets have been criticised for failing to take account of gay MPs who prefer to keep their sexuality private.^[40]

Voting record[link]

Harman has supported the Labour government and voted with the party in all but a few instances. She supported the Iraq War, although during the Deputy Leadership campaign, she said that she would not have voted for it had she been in full possession of the facts, specifically about the lack of concrete evidence of weapons of mass destruction.^[41][42] When asked by Jeremy Paxman if the Labour Party should say sorry for what happened, Jon Cruddas said that it should and Harman replied that she agreed with his statement. Later Harman appeared to backtrack on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme and asked for evidence to be provided of where she had stated that the party should apologise.^[43]

Fathers and families[link]

Erin Pizzey criticised the views expressed by Harman and her co-authors in the 1990 IPPR report "The Family Way". Writing in the Daily Mail, Pizzey claimed the report was a "staggering attack on men and their role in modern life" as a result of its stating, "it cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life or that the presence of fathers in families is necessarily a means to social cohesion".^[44] In May 2008 an interview she gave to think tank Civitas Harman stated that there was "no ideal type of household in which to bring up children".^[45][46][47]

In June 2008, two members of Fathers 4 Justice staged a protest on the roof of her house in Herne Hill, South East London, with a banner that read: "A father is for life not just conception." After they climbed back off the roof they were arrested by the Metropolitan Police and bailed until 16 July 2008.^[48] On the morning of 9 July 2008, fathers for justice again climbed on Harman's roof with a banner that read, "Stop war on dads."^[49] One of the complaints of the protesters was that Harman had refused their requests for a meeting yet she denied that they had even requested such a meeting.^[50]

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party[link]

Harman announced her intention to stand for Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party when John Prescott stood down.^[51] On 27 November 2006, the Press Association reported that she had commissioned an opinion poll from YouGov which found that Harman would be the most likely potential deputy leader to increase the Labour vote at the next general election.^[52] She used this point to argue that she should become the next Deputy Prime Minister in an interview with the BBC.^[53]

Harman did not have the support of any major unions, and helped to fund her campaign for deputy leadership by taking out a personal loan of £10,000^[54] and a £40,000 extension to her mortgage.^[55] Harman failed to report some donations and loans on time, and was subject to an Electoral 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.^[56]

On 24 June 2007, in what was a close contest Harman was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.^[57] 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 stood elected with 50.43% of the vote to Johnson's 49.56%^[58]

Campaign donations[link]

In November 2007, it emerged that property developer David Abrahams' secretary Janet Kidd had donated £5,000 to Harman's successful deputy leadership bid.^[59] After an investigation by The Mail on Sunday newspaper into other donations made by people associated with Abrahams, and Prime Minister Gordon 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 the Electoral Commission and the Register of Members' Interests, and that she "was not aware of any funding arrangements... between David Abrahams and Janet Kidd".^[60]

Loyalty[link]

In November 2010, The Times reported^[61] that at the end of 2009 Harman had hosted a new year's house party at her second home in Suffolk with guests including Patricia Hewitt, at "least one other minister" and another MP. It reported that she told guests that Gordon Brown was "hopeless" and that there were at least five members of the Cabinet who would tell Gordon Brown that he should resign. After the Christmas recess, Hewitt and Geoff Hoon wrote an open letter calling for a leadership election. This failed to get support from any serving minister, including Harman, and no election occurred, leading to the accusation that "Harriet bottled it".

MPs' expenses[link]

In January 2009, Harman proposed a rule change to exempt MPs' expenses from the Freedom 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 a three line whip. Her proposal was withdrawn when the Conservative Party said they would vote against, and an online campaign by mySociety.^[62] The failure of the motion led to the disclosure 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. Her case related to misusing Commons stationery for writing to non-constituents and she repaid £13.20.^[63] In November 2010 Harman's parliamentary private secretary Ian Lavery had blocked a motion designed to allow the repayments to be made public.^[64][65]

Use of statistics[link]

During the recession of the late 2000s, 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".^[66] 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.^[67][68][69]

In June 2009, Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK 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".^[70][71] The Equalities Office rejected his criticism, saying: "With women representing over three-quarters of the part-time workforce, we believe this figure gives the fullest picture of the country's gender pay gap."^[72]

Personal life[link]

Harman married Jack Dromey in 1982 in Brent, London, after meeting him on the picket line of the Grunwick dispute in 1977; she was legal advisor to the Grunwick Strike Committee. They have two sons (born February 1983 and November 1984) and a daughter (born January 1987), with the latter having the surname "Harman".^[73] Labour colleague Patricia Hewitt is godmother to one of her children.^[17] She has a house in Suffolk,^[74] in addition to her home in Herne Hill, South London.^[75]

In 1996, Harman sent her younger son Joseph to St Olave's Grammar School, Orpington after sending her elder son Harry to the London Oratory School, a grant-maintained school. Harman said: "This is a state school that other children in my son's class will be going to... And admission is open to every child in Southwark irrespective of money or who their parents are".^[76]

Motoring convictions[link]

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 the speed limit.^[77]

In 2007, Harman was issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice and given three penalty 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 at Ipswich magistrates court.^[74] 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.^[78]

In January 2010, Harman pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention in relation to an incident on 3 July where she struck another vehicle whilst driving using a mobile phone, she admitted the offence in court becoming the first serving Cabinet minister in memory to plead guilty to a criminal offence.^[79][80] Harman was fined £350, ordered to pay £70 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and had three points added to her licence.^[81] Road safety organisations such as Brake condemned the leniency of the punishment and decision to drop the charge of driving whilst using a mobile phone.^[82] 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".^[83]

Styles[link]

• Harriet Harman (1950–1982)
• Harriet Harman MP (1982–1997)
• The Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman MP (1997–2001)
• The Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman QC MP (2001–)^[84]

See also[link]

• Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband
• Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman
• Shadow Cabinet of Tony Blair
• Shadow Cabinet of John Smith
• Shadow Cabinet elections: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996

References[link]

Notes[link]

Publications[link]

• Sex Discrimination in Schools: How to Fight it by Harriet Harman, 1978, Civil Liberties Trust ISBN 0-901108-73-1
• Justice Deserted: Subversion of the Jury by Harriet Harman et al., 1979, Civil Liberties Trust ISBN 0-901108-79-0
• Violence Against Social Workers: The Implications for Practice by Dan Norris, foreword by Harriet Harman, Jessica Kingsley Publishers ISBN 1-85302-041-9
• The Family Way: A New Approach to Policy Making by Harriet Harman et al., 1990, Institute for Public Policy Research ISBN 1-872452-15-9
• The Century Gap: 20th Century Man/21st Century Woman by Harriet Harman, 1993, Vermilion ISBN 0-09-177819-0
• Winning for Women by Harriet Harman and Deborah Mattinson, 2000, Fabian Society ISBN 0-7163-0596-8
• Women with Attitude by Susan Vinnicombe, John Bank, foreword by Harriet Harman, 2002, Routledge ISBN 0-415-28742-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harriet Harman

• Harriet Harman Official constituency website
• Southwark Labour
• www.burkespeerage.com
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Works by or about Harriet Harman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Video clips

• Harman on Tory 'toff' campaign BBC News, 18 May 2008