Harriet Harman Quotes

[After an intervention by Jacob Rees-Mogg on her tweets, which he said had a "perception of bias": I] made it my business to find out whether or not it would mean that the government would not have confidence in me if I continued to chair the committee. [...]
I was assured that I should continue the work that the House had mandated with the appointment that the House had put me into and so I did just that.

For many young people, social mobility now means a bus down to the job centre.

Although he is disappointed, I know he will step forward and play a really important part in Labour’s future.

You have been there and seen it with your own eyes [...] If I was going at 100mph, and saw the speedometer saying 100mph, it would be a bit odd, wouldn't it, if I said somebody assured me that I wasn't? Because it's what you've seen with your own eyes.

Mr Johnson’s dishonesty if left unchecked would have contaminated the whole of government, allowing misleading to become commonplace and thus eroding standards which are essential for the health of our democracy.
There is no impunity for wrongdoing. Even if you’re the prime minister – especially if you’re the prime minister – you must tell the truth to parliament.

If he votes against, that's the only principled position. If he abstains, it's a cop-out; if he votes for, it's a sell-out.

Although it was a very close election, I don't think it was a polarised election. It was a tough fought contest but it was not a divisive contest. Although he won by a whisker I think the party will unite behind Ed Miliband.

[Referring to women MPs] We're now up to 35 per cent and a lot of men find this objectionable and want to unleash misogyny. [...]
The irony is that the more women you get, the more it triggers some men who whilst they can blot out of their ears a couple of women, somehow it feels like an assault on them to actually have to listen to a number of women in authority talking confidently, and they then do a backlash.

Yes I did when I was at university 30 years ago, just for a short time.

Hague: I'd like to congratulate the Leader of the House on being the first female Labour member ever to answer Prime Minister's Questions. She must be proud, three decades on, to be following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher, who we on this side of the House and the Prime Minister so admire.
Harman: Well I thank him for his congratulations but I would ask him, why is he asking the questions today? Because he is not the Shadow Leader of the House - the Shadow Leader of the House is sitting next to him! Is this the situation in the modern Conservative Party; that women should be seen but not heard? And if I may, perhaps I could offer the Shadow Leader of the House a bit of sisterly advice: she should not let him get away with it!
Hague: Turning to domestic issues, I was going to be nice to the Rt. Hon. Lady - she has had a difficult week and she had to explain yesterday that she dresses in accordance with wherever she goes; she wears a helmet to a building site; wears Indian clothes to Indian parts of her constituency; presumably, when she goes to a Cabinet meeting, she dresses as a clown.
Harman: Well I would just start by saying that if I'm looking for advice on what to wear and what not to wear, the very last man I would look to for advice would be the man in the baseball cap!

images of children should only be considered pornographic if it could be proven the subject suffered

While the happy couple are enjoying the thrill of the rose garden, the in-laws are saying that they are just not right for each other. We keep telling them that they cannot pay couples to stay together, and it is clear that it will take more than a three-quid-a-week tax break to keep this marriage together.

I'm afraid you gave up the right to pontificate on social mobility when you abolished educational maintenance allowance [EMA], trebled tuition fees and betrayed a generation of young people.

This is a very crucial period and we have got five fantastic candidates. All of them would make excellent leaders of the Party.

It wouldn't be possible because there aren't enough airports for all the men who'd want to flee the country.