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Male Labour MPs should back a woman when the party chooses a successor to Sir Keir Starmer, Harriet Harman has said.
The veteran politician, who stepped down at the general election after 40 years in parliament, said it is “embarrassing and sort of shameful” that Labour has never had a female at the helm.
Speaking to Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, she said men with future leadership ambitions should “strive to be deputy” and support a woman for the top job.
“I think it’s sort of embarrassing and sort of shameful that we think we’re the party of women’s equality, whereas we’ve never had a woman leader,” she said, comparing that with the Tories who have had three female bosses.
Ms Harman speculated Labour women “are more uncomfortable in our own party because our analysis is the power structures are wrong, they’re patriarchal”.
“That makes you quite a sort of irritant to your colleagues and uncomfortable and subversive,” she said.
“And therefore, it’s more difficult for them to rally around a woman who is critiquing the whole system.
“Whereas I think the Conservative women hitherto were more or less, ‘we’re going to beat the men on their own terms’.”
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She went on to say men had a role to play in ensuring whoever succeeds Sir Keir is a woman.
“They all want to be leader. It’s like they’ve got to just now strive to be deputy and support a woman leader.
“You know, it takes a very strong man to be leader, but it takes an even stronger man to support a woman for leader.”
The question of who ultimately succeeds…
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