Deputy Leader of The Labour Party
Harman announced her intention to stand for Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party when John Prescott stood down. On 27 November 2006, the Press Association reported that she had commissioned an opinion poll from YouGov which found that Harman would be the most likely potential deputy leader to increase the Labour vote at the next general election. She used this point to argue that she should become the next Deputy Prime Minister in an interview with the BBC.
Harman did not have the support of any major unions, and helped to fund her campaign for deputy leadership by taking out a personal loan of £10,000 and a £40,000 extension to her mortgage. Harman failed to report some donations and loans on time, and was subject to an Electoral Commission inquiry for breaches of electoral law. The commission said that her "failure to report on time is a serious matter" though the case was not handed over to the police.
On 24 June 2007, in what was a close contest Harman was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Alan Johnson had led in all but the first of the previous rounds, but when second-preference votes had been redistributed after the fourth round, Harman stood elected with 50.43% of the vote to Johnson's 49.56%
Read more about this topic: Harriet Harman
Famous quotes containing the words deputy, leader, labour and/or party:
“Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“A bad book is as much of a labour to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“[John] Brough’s majority is “glorious to behold.” It is worth a big victory in the field. It is decisive as to the disposition of the people to prosecute the war to the end. My regiment and brigade were both unanimous for Brough [the Union party candidate for governor of Ohio].”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)