Men should be ‘discouraged’ from standing in next Labour leadership race – Harman

George Thompson, Press Association Political Staff

Men should be banned from running in the next Labour leadership election, a party grandee has said.

Baroness Harriet Harman said she hopes Andy Burnham remains leader for “many, many years” but argued they need to “start a conversation now” on men being “discouraged” from standing next time.

The former deputy Labour leader told Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast they need to “stop the discrimination” and the next party leader “absolutely” needs to be a woman.

She said: “I wish with my whole heart Andy Burnham all the success that he can possibly have on behalf of this country and the Labour Party.

“But we’ve got to have a woman next time, and I’ve worked out that the only way we’ll have a woman leader of the Labour Party next time is if we start a conversation now where we say that actually men cannot stand for the leadership next time.

“I think that we need to start the discussion about male ambition and male allyship, that male ambition should not be to lead themselves, male ambition ought to be to support (women).”

Lady Harman and Baroness Margaret Beckett both served as interim leaders of Labour but the party has never had a woman serve full-time as leader.

In contrast, the Conservatives have had four women leaders, including three prime ministers.

Lady Harman argued there were a “whole range of reasons” why Tory women had been able to rise to the top but now what is needed for her party is for “women’s ambition to be encouraged”.

“For every man who stands for leader and gets to be a leader, he has pushed a woman behind him, he’s pushed her into second place behind him,” she said.

“Let’s hope Andy is leader for many, many, many years, and that he’s able to make much more of a success of it than Keir Starmer was.

“But we’ve got to start the discussion now about how we stop the discrimination that there is in the Labour Party, which means that whilst the Tories have managed to have many women leaders, we haven’t, let alone a woman prime minister.”

Mr Burnham became Labour leader earlier this month, having stood unopposed for the position.

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