'Gordon changed my speech as I was about to deliver it': Harman claims Brown altered party conference text as she 'waited on the stage'
- Former Labour deputy leader claimed Gordon Brown changed her speech
- She said it happened at party conference 'while she waited to deliver it' in 1996
- Miss Harman wanted to argue pension changes should be targeted at poorest
Gordon Brown changed one of Harriet Harman’s party conference speeches on the autocue as she waited to deliver it, she has claimed.
During the 1996 conference, Mr Brown secretly altered the text as Miss Harman was on the stage preparing to address party members.
Miss Harman, who was then shadow pensions secretary, wanted to argue that any increases in pension spending should be targeted at the poorest.
But Mr Brown, who was shadow chancellor at the time, did not want her to make the announcement, so changed the speech as she was waiting on the stage.
Harriet Harman, left, claims Gordon Brown, right, changed her speech on pensions at the 1996 Labour Party Conference
In her newly published memoirs, Miss Harman wrote: ‘When I went to the podium and started to read out the speech as it scrolled up through the autocue, I realised to my horror that the words appearing weren’t those I had prepared.
‘I kept going, but when I got to the end of it I realised that much of the most important section – why we needed to go for targeting rather than the universal basic state pension – had been replaced.
Jeremy Corbyn’s spin doctor Seumas Milne was accused of changing a speech to be given by Clive Lewis, pictured, then shadow defence minister, at last year's conference
‘When that conference session closed and I was able to leave the platform, I rushed backstage, demanding to know what on earth had happened to my speech.
‘While I was sitting on the platform waiting to speak, Gordon had gone through it and typed in alterations.
‘Gordon’s authority was such that there was no way special advisers, even two of them, could hold out against him.’
At the Labour party conference last year, Jeremy Corbyn’s spin doctor Seumas Milne was accused of similarly changing the speech to be given by Clive Lewis, who was then shadow defence minister.
Mr Lewis had planned to pledge he would not change Labour’s position of supporting the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent, but as he waited on the stage he was passed a note to tell him the text had been amended.
He is said to have punched a wall in anger when he came off stage.
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