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HARRIET HARMAN, one of only two women to have led Labour, has launched a campaign to stop the party being led exclusively by men.
Ms Harman said the election of Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson as leader and deputy leader shows “we still have further to go to reach equality in our party.”
Speaking at Labour’s women’s conference on Saturday, she said: “Now we have a male leader, male deputy leader, male London mayoral candidate and male general secretary,” she told Labour women’s conference.
“These were all separate elections so it’s not any of their fault — but we can’t leave it as a clean sweep of men. We’ve got to sort it out so that we have women’s leadership at the top of the party.”
Ms Harman is to bring forward rule changes that would stop an all-male leadership team in the future.
Labour peer John Prescott responded by accusing Ms Harman of hypocrisy, asking: “Why the hell are you moaning?”
He told the BBC yesterday: “We’ve just seen that with Harriet who [along with] about five or six of their leading women refused to stand and then complained about the make-up of the cabinet. Look, that’s just not on.”
Labour national executive member Ann Black said she supported Ms Harman’s proposals, but warned a similar effort in 2011 ran out of steam.
“Harriet Harman chaired a working group on a gender-balanced leadership and looked at seven or eight options,” she told the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy rally on Saturday.
“After a couple of meetings it was decided — by Harriet and others — that none of them would actually work.”