The acting Labour leader, Harriet Harman, says she feels “massive relief” to be stepping back from front bench politics after 28 years, three days before her party chooses a successor to Ed Miliband.
Harman, who has twice been her party’s acting leader, was speaking shortly after confronting David Cameron in the last prime minister’s questions before the announcement of the new Labour leader on Saturday.
“I just feel a massive relief really. It’s such a responsibility and now somebody else can do it and we’ll loyally support them,” she told the BBC’s Daily Politics programme.
“I’ve just felt relieved all the way along not to be prime minister and not to be the leader of the Labour party – it’s a hell of a thing they do.”
Asked about which of the former Labour party leaders she had most enjoyed working with, she said: “Neil [Kinnock] was massively supportive of me and really stuck his neck out by putting a very young, London, middle-class woman on the front bench, and he supported me all the way through.
“Tony [Blair] was very supportive and was even very nice to me when he sacked me. And Gordon [Brown] saved the world from going off the edge of a cliff in a global financial crisis.”
She added: “Twenty-eight years on the front bench – I feel that, you know, it’s now time for others to take it forward. But it was quite surprising to discover that I’m not possibly old enough or posh enough to be the frontrunner of this current leadership election.”
Harman, who is 65, has been the MP for Camberwell and Peckham for 33 years. A trained lawyer, she served as solicitor general for England and Wales in Blair’s government and leader of the House of Commons and minister for women and equality in Brown’s administration.
Harman also served as acting leader of the party in the interregnum between Gordon Brown’s resignation following the 2010 general election and Ed Miliband taking over.
The result of Labour’s 2015 leadership election, which was triggered with Miliband’s resignation on the day after May’s general election, will be announced at a special conference on Saturday.
Speaking in parliament ahead of prime minister’s questions, Cameron paid tribute to Harman, who is the longest serving female MP in parliament, saying she had served with distinction in both opposition and government.
“Twice she has stepped into the breach as her party’s acting leader,” he said. “Never an easy job, but she has carried it out with total assurance. She has always been a robust adversary across these despatch boxes and a fierce champion for a range of issues, most notably women’s rights, where she’s often led the way in changing attitudes in our country for the better.
“And although we haven’t always seen eye to eye, she has served her constituents, her party and this house with distinction from the front bench. And I wish her well as she continues to serve this house and her country from the back benches.”
