(^) The Mail on Sunday September 1 • 2019
How was I meant to cope with those 19-day weeks!
I
N TRUTH, my resignation
had been a long time coming.
A colleague who knew I’d
become a bit fed up before I
had baby Finn had suggested
that I use my maternity leave
to decide whether I wanted to
come back at all.
I just about ripped his head off.
There was no way I was going to
throw women under a bus by sug-
gesting that the mere fact of
having a baby meant someone
could no longer do their job.
Of course I would come back.
There was no way I was going to
set the precedent – as the first UK
political leader to give birth in
office – that babies meant automat-
ically giving up the job. And in
April, it was a case of coming back
with a bang. With a party confer-
ence in Aberdeen followed by the
European elections, my first ‘week’
back was actually 19 days straight
before I had a day off.
That was followed by another 12-
day ‘week’. This is not an appeal for
sympathy, it’s just the job. But, my
word, it is hard on our families.
Politics hadn’t become any more
straightforward during my absence
either. The plan had been to see
Brexit through and then go off on
maternity leave but Brexit has
become only ever more compli-
cated. And it is an issue over which
I am genuinely conflicted, which
makes it hard to provide clear-
sighted leadership. I campaigned
for Remain, but I believe in the
importance of losers’ consent and
have tried at all times to recognise
and respect the referendum deci-
sion to leave the EU.
That’s not a blank cheque for any
kind of Brexit, particularly not one
which causes economic shock to
the country. That conflict abso-
lutely affected my ability to lead.
Add in the genuine dread at the
idea of two Election campaigns in
20 months, prompting hundreds of
hours on the road away from my
young family, and I had to be
honest with myself that my time
was up. I made the final decision
to go on Monday and told my
close team.
We realised that there was a lot
to do before making a public
announcement on Thursday.
But our careful plans were blown
out the water when politics went
wild with the Prime Minister’s deci-
sion to prorogue Parliament.
I could hardly discuss what I
thought of the decision in public as
I’d be asked: ‘Are you going to
resign over this?’
So I decided to disappear for a
few hours and on Wednesday I
decamped to a friend’s flat (he was
on holiday) with just a few bags of
LABOUR activists have launched a bid to
guarantee Jeremy Corbyn leads any interim
anti-No Deal Brexit government by knocking
rival Harriet Harman out of the race.
They have demanded that Ms Harman
gives her party leader a clear run, despite
fears that Mr Corbyn will never win backing
from other parties to head the ‘unity’
administration.
The ultimatum, from her local Labour
constituency party, came after Liberal
Democrat leader Jo Swinson claimed Ms
Harman could be the person to bring all the
opposition parties together.
The challenge emerged amid reports of
a possible deselection threat to Ms Harman
from hard-Left activists infiltrating her
South London constituency.
Labour’s plan to force Boris Johnson out
in a Commons confidence vote and replace
him with Mr Corbyn suffered a blow last
month when Lib Dems and Conservative
rebels signalled they could not support a
Corbyn-led administration.
By Ruth DaviDson
FORMER SCOTTISH TORY LEADER
16
By Brendan Carlin
POLITICAL C ORRESPOnDEnT
Ms Swinson also infuriated the
Labour leader’s inner circle by say-
ing she had spoken to Ms Harman
and got her assurance that she was
ready to ‘put public duty first’ by
becoming interim PM.
In a letter seen by The Mail on
Sunday, Ms Harman’s Camberwell
and Peckham constituency party
c h a i r m a n , I s a b e l l a N i v e n ,
demanded answers from the
former Cabinet Minister.
She wrote: ‘Jo Swinson alleges
that you were part of these talks,
and happy to take a leading role in
any such temporary government
which might be formed. Our
Executive Committee has neither
seen publicly nor received pri-
vately any reassurance from you
that these reports are untrue.’
She wrote that ‘a number of local
activists and residents’ wanted it
clarified that under no circum-
stances ‘would you would seek to
undermine our party by having
such talks’.
Ms Niven added that it was the
‘clear constitutional right held by
the Leader of the Opposition and
the Shadow Cabinet to have the
first attempt to form an adminis-
tration if a government falls.
‘Under the party’s rules, the
leader of the Labour Party can be
our only candidate to be Prime
Minister, which is very clearly the
basis on which the party member-
ship voted for them.’
She urged Ms Harman ‘for our
peace of mind’ to confirm that she
had not participated in talks with
rival opposition parties that ‘have
excluded our democratically
elected leader’.
The letter follows claims that the
Camberwell and Peckham local
party association has been infil-
trated by Corbynistas intent on
deselecting Ms Harman as a candi-
date despite her long service as the
party’s former deputy and acting
leader, government minister and
MP since 1982.
The threat is said to lie behind her
bid to succeed John Bercow as
Speaker as, by convention, she
would become a non-party political
figure who would not be challenged
at Election time in the seat from
the main parties.
In a reply to Ms Niven, Ms Har-
man insisted she had not been
‘involved in any closed-door, cross-
party talks’ between Labour and
Tory MPs and the Liberal Demo-
crat leadership.
‘I can confirm that I have not par-
ticipated in any talks that have
excluded our leader and would not
do so,’ said the MP, adding that it
was the Opposition Leader’s right
‘to have the first attempt to form an
administration if the Government
fails’. However, her reply makes no
reference to the possibility that an
alternative ‘unity PM’ would be
needed if Mr Corbyn proved unac-
ceptable to other parties.
Ms Harman could not be reached
for comment yesterday.
The conflict emerged amid
renewed suspicions among Labour
frontbenchers that Mr Corbyn is
preparing to anoint Shadow
Business Secretary Rebecca Long-
Bailey as his successor.
The Labour leader has sparked
anger by insisting on holding a
Shadow Cabinet meeting tomorrow
in Ms Long-Bailey’s Salford con-
stituency, even though it is a rock-
solid Labour seat.
One party source complained:
‘Why are we going to Salford –
Labour majority 19,000-plus –
rather than going to a marginal seat
that we need to win if Boris John-
son calls a snap Election?’
lJeremy Corbyn turned impres-
sionist yesterday, by doing his own
version of a stuttering, blustering
Boris Johnson.
During a visit to Glasgow, the
Labour leader mimicked the Prime
Minister as he dismissed the yawn-
ing popularity gap between them.
‘It’s not all about personalities or
individuals, or indeed what some of
the media choose to say about me,’
said Mr Corbyn.
However, a new Deltapoll survey
for The Mail on Sunday today
shows the Labour leader trailing
way behind the PM, with an
approval rating of minus 45 com-
pared to plus 6 for Boris.
Corbynistas tell
Harman: Get
out of the race
to be ‘unity PM’
‘Would you seek to
undermine our party?’
TAKING CONTROL: Harriet Harman and Jeremy Corbyn after the Labour leadership results announcement in 2015
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