Harriet Harman lambasts May: she is a woman but she is “no sister”

Former deputy leader Harriet Harman gave a speech this afternoon at Labour Women’s Conference and criticised Theresa May, saying she’s “a woman but she is no sister”.

Labour Women’s Conference is an annual event on Saturday before the rest of conference begins on Sunday.

This year Harman used her speech to criticise the Prime Minister:

“We’ve got a new Tory prime minister – and she’s a woman. But like Margaret Thatcher before her, Theresa May is no supporter of women.”

“When we were pushing for more Labour women MPs, she chased me round TV and radio studios decrying us, joining the men in her party and some in ours who called it ‘political correctness gone mad’.

“And while she’s been in government, she’s voted every time for the cuts to the vital programmes that we brought in when we were in government, like Sure Start centres, and for tax credits for childcare. Theresa May is woman – but she’s no sister.”

But she also said that it was not acceptable that Labour has not had a woman leader, while other political parties do.

“Let’s face it, there’s not one of us here who isn’t smarting that while the Tories, SNP, the Greens and even, God help us, Ukip have a woman leader, when it comes to Labour it’s raining men,” she said.

Harman used her speech to argued that when Labour was last deeply divided, women politicians came together. She urged women to do the same again.

“We worked together as women in the cause of women despite our differences over the leadership at that time. And so we must and will now.”