Next Labour leadership election should be a women-only contest, says Harriet Harman

Labour’s next leadership election should be a women-only contest, Harriet Harman has said, in order to give the party its first female leader since it was founded in 1900.

The former deputy leader and interim leader following Ed Miliband’s defeat at the ballot box in 2015 called for men to sit out the battle to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, whenever it comes.

Ms Harman said her idea was “startling” a lot of would-be leaders who are laughing at the initiative.

She said: “Next time I think we have to be quite clear about this and basically say there are lots of fantastic men in the Labour Party who would be more than capable of being leader – there’s no doubt about that – and there are also lots of women who are more than capable of being leader, and we’re going to choose one of the women.

“The men can jostle amongst themselves to be deputy.”

When asked by the House magazine whether she wanted men to sit out the next context, Ms Harman added: “More than that, actively support a woman to be leader. They’ve got to be holding themselves and each other back in support of the Labour party getting a woman leader. Because the Tories have had not one but two women leaders. So, it’s becoming a bit of a thing.

“At the moment, I’m advancing this argument and I’m not saying I’m making a huge amount of progress with it. I’m startling a lot of the would-be leaders and they think I’m joking and peel away with laughter and I’m like, deadly serious.

“You’ve had women saying there should be a woman leader. You’ve had men saying there should be a woman leader, but we haven’t yet had the men who are potential leaders saying, ‘this time it’s a woman’. That’s the next step.

“For women, being a deputy is quite a natural thing. I’ve been deputy to enough leaders and know about being a deputy and supporting the leader. It is a thing, to be a good deputy is very, very important and to support a leader is very important. It’s quite natural for women to do that.”

Ms Harman also signalled that she would consider standing for the post of Commons Speaker when incumbent John Bercow leaves the role.

She said: “People have been asking me whether I would be prepared to stand. But I think that that’s something that I would have to consider when there’s a vacancy, and there isn’t one at the moment.”