من الأشهر اليوم؟

After almost 40 years in parliament, she wants to be Speaker and restore public faith in politics. She talks about anger, antisemitism and abuse
It is the end of yet another momentous week in parliament and Harriet Harman’s kitchen is a picture of cheery domestic chaos. Her two beloved cats are climbing the curtains, there is a pile of washing waiting and Holly, her young granddaughter, who is currently staying, toddles in and out. Harman apologises for the mess, but is clearly rather enjoying having a highchair at the table again.
It is 37 years since she arrived in Westminster, heavily pregnant and feeling like a “fish out of water”, as she described it. Male Tory MPs would shout “stupid cow” at her across the chamber, while the things she longed to debate – such as her south London constituents’ struggle to find childcare while they worked, or feminist reforms she had taken up as a young lawyer – were deemed trivial. At her lowest ebb – contracting pneumonia while exhausted from juggling an opposition frontbench job and small children – she considered quitting. But instead she rose to the cabinet under Tony Blair, served as caretaker Labour leader after Ed Miliband left and is now running to succeed John Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons when he retires next month, on a platform of putting parliament back in touch with the public that it serves. Continue reading...