Harriet Harman (right) revealed she had no photographs, cake or even guests at her wedding in 1982 to Jack Dromey, in a bizarre bid to fight against what she described as patriarchy

Just last week she called for a ban on politicians talking about the importance of marriage.

Now Harriet Harman has taken yet another swipe at the institution of matrimony.

The 66-year-old revealed she had no photographs, cake or even guests at her wedding in 1982 to Jack Dromey, in a bizarre bid to fight against what she described as patriarchy.

She claims the couple had tried to avoid getting married, but were forced to when she became pregnant because she feared for her career in politics as an unmarried mother.

‘There are no photos of my wedding, no cake. We saw marriage as patriarchal,’ she said in an interview with The Times Magazine.

‘Jack and I were trying not to get married. We did it because I was pregnant.’

‘Being a young woman MP was going to be hard enough as it was. But to do that when I was unmarried with a child...

‘I can’t even remember if I told my parents about it. I didn’t invite them or my friends. We just had a bottle of champagne in the garden afterwards,’ Labour’s former deputy leader added.

‘We were fighting against the idea that marriage was the point at which women were handed from the authority of the father to the authority of the husband.’

Last week, Miss Harman called for an end to politicians talking about the importance of marriage in an article for Prospect magazine titled ‘If I ruled the world’.

She wrote: ‘I’d ban them [politicians] from going on about how important marriage is and how damaging divorce is.’

Last week Miss Harman called for an end to politicians talking about the importance of marriage. Her comments were criticised by Tory politicians including Iain Duncan Smith

Her comments were criticised by a number of Tory politicians including Iain Duncan Smith, who said her remarks were ‘unbelievable’ and not based on facts.

The former Tory leader said the Centre for Social Justice, which he set up in 2004, had produced research underlining the importance of marriage in keeping children out of poverty.

For example, it showed that 48 per cent of children in low income households lived with one parent, compared to 16 per cent of middle to high income households.

Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation, said it was ‘hypocritical’ for married politicians like Miss Harman to play down the importance of marriage.

Last week Miss Harman called for an end to politicians talking about the importance of marriage. Her comments were criticised by Tory politicians including Iain Duncan Smith

He said: ‘Harriet Harman is still married after all these years, as are 89 per cent of the current Cabinet and a high proportion of the Shadow Cabinet.

'The real hypocrisy is that nine out of ten of all politicians in the highest income groups are married, but they have spent years telling us that it doesn’t matter.

‘The tragedy is that the poor have been listening, and are the least able to cope when families split up.’