Harriet Harman: I would have 'definitely' beaten Ed Miliband to Labour leadership in 2010
2 min read
Harriet Harman has said she would have have won the Labour leadership contest in 2010 had she put herself forward for the job.
The party's former deputy leader said there was not the sense that she was “leadership material” among the party's largely-male officials, with the assumption being that the role would fall to David Miliband or Ed Balls.
The contest famously saw Ed Miliband pip his brother to the leadership against the odds, ahead of former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and the now Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.
“I think all the expectation was that one of the young Turks would be leader,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Reflections with Peter Hennessy. "Would it be David Miliband, you know, would it be Ed Balls?
“There was no sense anywhere, as there often is with women, that I was leadership material.”
Ms Harman, who has twice been acting leader of Labour, including in 2010 after Gordon Brown stood down, said party members told her she was “nailing it” and asked her why she had not put herself forward.
"I was so relieved not to be cocking the whole thing up that I took it as a great compliment, but I didn’t go that next step and think they’re asking me why I’m not going for leader," she added.
"Why aren’t I? I just never got to that point.
"And it was clear then, as it turns out, that the party hadn’t taken to David Miliband, they didn’t elect him.
"And they hardly knew Ed Miliband, but they elected him whereas they did know me and they did like and support me.
"So I think if I’d have stood I definitely would have got it."
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