Former deputy leader says she regrets not putting herself forward for the top job to stop it ‘raining men’ within the party

Harriet Harman has said she regrets not standing to be Labour leader, amid calls for Jeremy Corbyn to do more to promote women in the party.

The former deputy leader said it was “a bit of a mystery” to her why she failed to put herself forward for the role when Gordon Brown resigned in 2010.

Harman said Corbyn needed to do more to encourage women into leadership roles, saying “it can’t carry on raining men” within the Labour party.

Asked whether she wished she had stood for leader, Harman told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “In a way I do, and I think the moment I should have run is in 2010 when Gordon [Brown] stood down. It sort of took everybody by surprise as we all thought he would stay and hand over.

Harriet Harman: ‘I don’t want to be not-liked. It’s just that nobody did for nearly 20 years’ Read more

“Then I became acting leader and suddenly realised I could do it, so at that moment I should have stepped forward and it is a bit of a mystery to me why I didn’t. But I think the world is full of men who aren’t up to the job pushing themselves forward, and loads of women who are up to the job who don’t, and for that moment I was probably one of them.”

The Labour veteran said the shortage of women in senior roles was a problem for Labour, which prides itself on being the party of equality.

Harman said: “It is a paradox. If I knew what the problem was and we could just throw a switch and change it … But certainly more and more people are beginning to recognise that it just looks downright old-fashioned to think that men have to make the decisions and women have to abide by them.

“I was brought up at a time when there was the old phrase that ‘men were men and women were glad of it’. Well we just need to move a bit beyond that in the Labour party.”

The MP for Camberwell and Peckham said: “It is down to all of us to say it can’t just carry on raining men in the Labour party.

“Men at the top have got to share power with women. That hasn’t happened yet but it has got to. It is part of really changing Labour to make us the modern, progressive party we ought to be.”

Pressed on whether Corbyn needed to do more, she said: “We should be doing more to make sure this equality happens – of course he should be, we all should be.”

Harman admitted Labour was not mounting an effective opposition as it lacked the necessary public support.



She said: “I think you can’t be an effective opposition if you haven’t got enough public support because the government doesn’t need to worry about you, they only look at their own side.



“They don’t need to be concerned about us. So we do need more public support in order to be an effective opposition, let alone a credible alternative government. We certainly have work to do.”



It’s time for Labour to be bold and challenge these Brexit lies | Anne Perkins Read more

Harman also defended Labour’s record on Brexit, as she said the conflicting views within the party reflected divisions across the country.



She said: “It is the tactics now that the party is divided on, not the principles. We still want to make sure that there is social justice, economic prosperity, we want the country to be united, all of those principles remain the same.



“But tactically it is very difficult and you know when you are in opposition it is only bad choices, as you don’t set the context, and therefore it is a very turbulent time.



“We have got to make the best of the bad situation we are in for the country and make sure the government can do as well as they can for the country and not make things even worse.”