WATCH OUT - HERE COMES MAD HATTIE

Is Hattie Harman Mobilising?

By PAUL WAUGH 

Harriet Harman just made a speech on reforms to clean up Parliament in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal. But maybe just as interesting is her canvassing of Labour party members. In what is being seen by at least one Labour MP as a possible prelude to another leadership bid, Ms Harman's volunteers have been asking the following questions:

"Who do you think is the best person to sell the Labour party?"

"On a scale of 0 to 5, how do you rate Harriet Harman?"

A spokeswoman for Ms Harman insists it is something the Deputy Labour leader has been doing for some time:

"When she won the deputy leadership campaign, she pledged that she would keep in contact with party activists and she has done that ever since.

As part of that commitment, she has a team of volunteer activists who regularly ring around to hear the opinions of grassroot activists. It’s a very useful and important means to keep Harriet in touch with the party and it’s something that is appreciated by party activists.” 

Sue Thomas, a constituency party secretary in Ipswich, tells me that she was asked to rate not just Harriet's performance but also, on a scale of 1 to 5, that of G Brown himself. Sue insists that the questions were not put in the form of "Harriet v Gordon" or phrased as a leadership bid in any way. 

A spokeswoman for Ms Harman says the plain and simple answer to the question in the title of this blogpost is: "An unambiguous 'No'."

"Harriet is doing the job that she was elected to do - to maintain party engagement and it's entirely legitimate for her to do this as part of that process."

"This is a regular activity, not something started with any ulterior motive. Harriet is a loyal deputy to the Prime Minister and it's utter rubbish to suggest otherwise or to suggest that she's building some kind of database of emails and information."  

FULL ARTICLE at The EVENING STANDARD

So,  Mad Hattie's leadership ambitions are showing no signs of diminishing - as if! Although she and her supporters constantly deny that she is actively campaigning for the job, many Labour MPs and Ministers refute these denials. I remember not so long ago either reading or hearing on a news programme that her ideal outcome in a leadership election would place her as PM and Alan Johnson as her Deputy - I don't imagine she would get much trouble from him! 

Insiders said, "everyone knows that Harriet is building a base among members - everything she does is about positioning for the leadership." Her actions came to light as Labour insiders say the party is starting to look beyond Mr Brown. One backbencher said: “You can’t find anyone outside No 10 who thinks we can win the next election, so it’s all about who takes over as leader after we lose and Gordon goes.” 

Many Labour MPs believe that Brown can hold on until the election and I, for one, would be extremely happy if that is indeed the case, however, senior members foresee no improvement in Labour's poll ratings if Brown remains in place and, as such, want a leadership challenge after the Labour conference in a few weeks time. I truly hope they botch this third attempt to oust him because he is our best hope for a complete Labour meltdown come election time and that is our best hope to turn Britain back into the place where we used to live in freedom from these socialist monsters and their partners in crime, the damned socialist EU! 

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• Harriet Harman canvasses Labour activists about Gordon Brown's performance (telegraph.co.uk)