Harriet Harman

Harriet Ruth Harman, Baroness Harman, PC, KC (born 30 July 1950), is a British politician and solicitor who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Chair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2015 and Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 2007 to 2010. She also briefly served as Leader of the Opposition in 2010 and 2015 following the resignations of Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband respectively. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham (formerly Peckham) from 1982 to 2024, during which time she held various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions, and was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2024.

Born in London to a doctor and a barrister, Harman was privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School before going on to study politics at the University of York. After working for Brent Law Centre, she became a legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), a role in which she was found in contempt of court following action pursued by Michael Havers, a former Attorney General. She successfully took a case, Harman v United Kingdom, to the European Commission of Human Rights, where she argued that Havers had breached her right to freedom of expression. The case was settled after the British government agreed to change the law.

Harman was elected as MP for Peckham at a 1982 by-election. She was made a shadow social services minister in 1984 and a shadow health minister in 1987. Under John Smith, she was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and, under Tony Blair, as Shadow Employment Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow Social Security Secretary respectively. Following the 1997 general election victory, she was appointed Secretary of State for Social Security and the first ever Minister for Women, until 1998 when she left the Cabinet. In 2001, she was appointed Solicitor General for England and Wales, until 2005 when she became Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs. She ran in the 2007 deputy leadership election and defeated five other candidates, ultimately defeating health secretary Alan Johnson, by a narrow margin. Gordon Brown, who was elected as party leader, appointed her Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal, Minister for Women and Equality and Chairman of the Labour Party.

Upon defeat at the 2010 general election, Brown resigned as party leader and Harman, as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, became the acting leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition until the election of Ed Miliband. She subsequently served as Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, combining the position with that of Shadow International Development Secretary from 2010 to 2011 and then Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary from 2011 to 2015. In 2014, Harman expressed regret after it was revealed that the Paedophile Information Exchange had affiliated status within the NCCL while she had been legal officer. Following Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election, Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Harman again became acting party leader and Leader of the Opposition. She also resigned as deputy leader, prompting a concurrent deputy leadership election. Harman stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election and was appointed to the House of Lords later that year.

Harriet Ruth Harman was born at 108 Harley Street in London, and privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School. She is a daughter of John B. Harman, a Harley Street doctor, and his wife Anna née Spicer, a barrister, who gave up practising when she had children and who was the Liberal Party candidate for Hertford in the 1964 general election. They both had non-conformist backgrounds – Harman's paternal grandfather Nathaniel Bishop Harman, an ophthalmic surgeon, was a prominent Unitarian and the Spicer family were well-known Congregationalists. Her paternal aunt was Elizabeth Longford (née Harman), the wife of former Labour minister Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and her cousins include the writers Lady Antonia Fraser, Lady Rachel Billington and Thomas Pakenham, Earl of Longford. Her great-grandfather was Arthur Chamberlain, an industrialist. Harman is a great-great-niece of the Liberal statesman Joseph Chamberlain, and is a cousin once removed of former prime minister Neville Chamberlain and former Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain. She is also related to Liberal politician Richard Chamberlain, MP. Through her uncle Lord Pakenham she is related by marriage to former prime minister David Cameron, whom she faced as Leader of the Opposition. Her cousin Rachel Billington is also godmother to former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Harman gained a 2:1 BA in Politics from the University of York. During her time at York, she was a member of Goodricke College and was involved with student politics. After York, Harman went on to qualify as a solicitor and worked for Brent Law Centre in London. Between 1978 and 1982, she was employed as a legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties. In this capacity, and just before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982, she represented a prisoner who was kept in solitary confinement against the Home Office. However, she was found in contempt of court for sharing documents she had read aloud in the courtroom with a journalist. The contempt of court action was pursued by Michael Havers, a former Attorney General for England and Wales. Harman was thus the subject of numerous parliamentary questions and debates before she became an MP, including at a PMQ in February 1982. Harman subsequently took the case to the European Court of Human Rights, successfully arguing Havers had breached her right to freedom of expression. The case is considered a significant case in British public law.

Harman was later involved in a European Court of Human Rights case against MI5. During a 1984 television interview by Cathy Massiter, it was revealed personal files were held by MI5 on Harman and on the (by then former) General Secretary of the NCCL, Patricia Hewitt. They successfully argued that there had been an infringement of their rights because MI5 was not a legally constituted and democratically accountable organisation, this being the minimum standard in democracy. The success of the case led to enactment of the Security Service Act 1989.

Harry Lamborn, the Labour MP for Peckham, died on 21 August 1982. In the subsequent by-election held on 28 October 1982, Harman was elected to succeed Lamborn with 11,349 votes (50.34%), a majority of 3,931 over Social Democratic candidate Dick Taverne, a former Labour MP for Lincoln. The Conservative Party candidate was John Redwood, who came third, and went on to be elected MP for Wokingham in 1987.