Harman gets a House husband: Deputy PM's other half lined up for safe seat



Harriet Harman has spent her two weeks running the country moaning about the competence of men in public life.



But perhaps her husband Jack Dromey is something of an exceptional case.



Senior Labour sources say he is being lined up for a safe Labour seat at the next Election.



They claim the Unite union boss will be parachuted in at the last minute as a reward for supporting Gordon Brown.



Left-wing power couple: Harriet Harman and Unite boss Jack Dromey



The prospect of him joining forces in the Commons with his wife, will do little to boost her popularity with colleagues.



Labour aides revealed that events of the past week have persuaded fellow ministers to work together to prevent the Labour deputy becoming party leader once Mr Brown stands down.



Yesterday Miss Harman, who has strong views on feminism, denied 'absolutely' claims that she has been running a leadership campaign in all but name during her period standing in for the Prime Minister.



In an interview with Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she said: 'I can't be responsible for people's perceptions.



'I'm not going to become a shrinking violet. I'm not going to hide away from the agenda. That's one of the things that brought me into politics. I felt there was a missing voice.'



'There is no point tippy-toeing around,' she said.



'If I had been tippy-toeing around I never would have raised the issue of should we have a criminal offence for men who exploit prostitutes and who exploit victims of human trafficking.'



Miss Harman also announced plans for children as young as five to get lessons about wife beating and angered Cabinet colleagues by saying a woman should always hold one of the top two posts in the Labour leadership because 'men cannot be trusted to run things on their own'.



But the latest claims suggest her opposition to electing a male does not extend to to her husband.



As an MP, Mr Dromey could strengthen his wife's power base in Parliament by acting as an informal link between her and other union-backed MPs in Westminster. He is deputy general secretary of Britain's biggest union, whose role as key donors to Labour's General Election funds would surely help his chances of securing a safe seat.



Mr Dromey has been ridiculed in recent years for saying he knew nothing about the cash for peerages affair, in which three Labour donors were proposed as members of the Lords after making £3.5million in loans to the party while he was treasurer.



He was also called 'lazy and stupid' for declaring ignorance of suspect donations to his wife's deputy leadership campaign two years ago, which resulted in an Electoral Commission investigation.



Colleagues of Miss Harman are scarcely more complimentary about her own elevation.



One minister branded her 'bonkers' on Monday after she said the financial meltdown might not have happened if there had been more women in merchant banks.



Several Labour MPs who refused to join the plot against Gordon Brown's leadership in June declared that they had been concerned they would end up with 'prime minister Harriet'.



One ministerial aide said: 'The party is divided and people can't agree on a successor. The one thing everyone agrees on is that it must not be Harriet. The last week has been proof of that in spades.'

