Harriet Harman says Labour is too male-dominated

Labour's former deputy leader Harriet Harman has criticised the number of men in top jobs in the party.

Ms Harman, who was also the acting leader after the general election, said current leader Jeremy Corbyn came from a "strand" of left wing politics that was not motivated by gender equality.

Half of the posts in Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet went to women.

But the shadow home secretary, shadow chancellor and shadow foreign secretary are all men.

Speaking at a conference looking at the issues faced by women in the world of work, Ms Harman said: "It is very difficult to be a party arguing for women's advance when your top swathe is men.

"And I think that the strand of the left that Jeremy comes from has never been a gender-motivated part of the left.

"It comes from a time, in a way, when gender was a new insurgency that arrived later on and was seen as a bit of a distraction from the proper left-right struggle."

'Easy solution'

Ms Harman acknowledged "very important" posts like shadow health secretary and shadow education secretary were currently filled by women.

But the elected positions of leader, deputy leader, general secretary and London mayoral candidate were occupied by men, she said, "before you even get to the appointed jobs" chosen by Mr Corbyn.

"So Jeremy needs to think about how it has been perceived", she said, proposing the "very easy" solution of an additional, female, deputy leader.

Ms Harman was also asked about Mr Corbyn's electoral chances.

She said she was not in politics for "doctrinal purity" but to "make a difference", and to do "all the things you can't do if you're not in power".

Boundary changes

The ultimate responsibility of a Labour leader, she said, is to "take us as a Labour Party nearer to power and that's what needs to happen".

Rather than "protest about what the Tories are doing" Labour has to understand why people voted David Cameron's party into government and to "address ourselves to the electorate", she added.

Also appearing at the conference, organised to mark the 50th anniversary of BBC Radio 4's The World at One, Carers UK and Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge, former Conservative Culture Secretary Maria Miller said her party still had a "huge way to go in terms of getting more women on board".

She also predicted plans to cut the number of MPs to 600 would present a "real challenge" to all the parties in their attempts to increase female representation in the Commons.