'Mandy for deputy PM? Over my dead body!': Harman claims she stopped Gordon Brown from promoting Lord Mandelson ahead of her
- Harriet Harman claims she stopped Peter Mandelson's promotion in her memoir
- She said Gordon Brown asked her to back the Lord for deputy prime minister
- Claims the then prime minister was going to make her the health secretary
- But she 'steadfastly refused' and Lord Mandelson was given different position
Gordon Brown scrapped a plan to make Peter Mandelson deputy prime minister after Harriet Harman told him it would happen ‘over my dead body’, she has claimed.
The Labour grandee was secretly lined up for the role by Mr Brown in the run up to the 2010 general election despite him being an unelected member of the Lords rather than an MP.
However, Mr Brown ditched the idea when Miss Harman, who was then deputy Labour leader, told him she could not accept it during a row in Downing Street.
When Mr Brown became prime minister in 2007, he refused to hand Miss Harman the deputy prime minister job even though she had been elected deputy party leader.
Harriet Harman, left, claims she stopped Gordon Brown from promoting Lord Mandelson, right, to deputy prime minister ahead of her in 2009
Miss Harman has now revealed for the first time in her memoirs how two years later Mr Brown decided to promote Lord Mandelson to the post that he had left unfilled.
In 2009, Miss Harman was called to Downing Street and told by Mr Brown that he was planning to appoint her as health secretary.
The conversation turned into an argument when Miss Harman asked if he was going to give the deputy prime minister job to Lord Mandelson, who was then business secretary.
‘Gordon had clearly planned not to tell me and looked shocked to be confronted. “But things are so bad, I need him to help me,” he said,’ Miss Harman wrote.
According to her account, Mr Brown then called her back to Number 10 for a second meeting in which he ‘pleaded’ with her to allow Lord Mandelson to take the role.
But Miss Harman steadfastly refused and told him for a second time, ‘over my dead body’.
Mr Brown then decided against the idea and instead appointed Lord Mandelson as first secretary of state, which was seen as appointing him deputy prime minister in all but name.
In her memoir, Miss Harman, left, said she told Mr Brown, right, 'over my dead body' regarding the promotion, and instead Lord Mandelson was made first secretary of state
Miss Harman complains in her book about how she was given a place at the end of the Cabinet table rather than next to Mr Brown when she was elected deputy party leader in 2007.
The avowed feminist said she now regrets that she did not stand up to Mr Brown and insist he make her deputy prime minister.
‘My failure to challenge Gordon deprived Labour of having our first woman in that position,’ she wrote.
Miss Harman said that when Ed Miliband became Labour leader she told him ‘he would have to make me his deputy prime minister’ if elected in 2015.
In the book, Miss Harman claims that Lord Mandelson could have eased tensions between Tony Blair and Mr Brown when they were prime minister and chancellor, but did not do so.
‘It was in the interests of the country, and the party, for Tony and Gordon to work together, but perhaps it wasn’t in Peter’s personal interests,’ she wrote.
Most watched News videos
- 'Your f****** son!': Man's foul mouthed rant at mother and son
- Moment police deliberately ram a stolen moped off the road
- Woman filmed performing sex act in Florida court house
- Trump awkwardly avoids holding Melania's hand in Florida
- Jonathan Ross mentions Beckham's knighthood during 2013 interview
- Yaser Abdel Said films disturbing home video of his daughters
- Girl is thrown from theme park ride and dies in China
- Shocking moment dancer collapses and dies on stage during routine
- Video claims to show exorcism of demon-possessed young man
- Teacher and BLM supporter: 'we need to start killing people'
- Alec Baldwin mocks Trump and his Australia phone call
- Justin Bieber teams up with T-Mobile for Super Bowl 51 advert
- Trump administration files appeal challenging Seattle...
- Apocalypse island: Tech billionaires are building...
- Brave train manager tells a 'drunken racist' solicitor to...
- PICTURED: Prince Harry is spotted holding hands with his...
- 'I'm just a normal person who is extremely disappointed...
- RIP brand Beckham: Hacked emails suggest ex-England...
- What a gentleman! Bride-to-be Pippa Middleton's fiance...
- Kylie is left 'inconsolable' after splitting from wannabe...
- Nigel Farage is sharing his £4million bachelor pad with...
- Revealed: A secret list of Netflix codes that will help...
- Donald Trump 'avoids holding Melania's hand in public...
- Man dressed in his dressing gown 'is caught having sex...