The next leader of the Labour Party will lead the fightback against the Tories and define the party's future. Who we choose is a crucial decision and it is important that this debate is as open as possible. I gave a speech about how the Labour Party will be opening this debate to the public, outlining the following key points:

 * The public - not just Labour members - will be able to ask questions of leadership and deputy leadership candidates at hustings events.

* Hustings will be staged in the towns and suburbs where Labour hoped to win in the general election, but where the party failed to make inroads.

* Labour members will be encouraged to bring supporters of other parties, or non-voters, to hear speeches by the contenders.

The full speech is below: 

HARRIET HARMAN SPEECH

FUTURE OF THE PARTY

TIME TO LET IN THE PUBLIC

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

INTRODUCTION

I'd like to welcome you all here this morning. 

I have to begin by saying the last thing we wanted was to be where we are now. 

Being interim leader was not the job I wanted to be doing today.

I wanted Ed Miliband to be our Prime Minister and for us to be in Government.

We’re bitterly disappointed to have lost so many Labour MPs - in England, Wales and Scotland.

I want to pay tribute to Ed Miliband. He is a thoroughly decent and principled man who threw himself into the leadership unstintingly and he could not have worked harder or been more committed.

I would like to pay tribute to Jim Murphy. He stepped up in Scotland at an intensely difficult time and he faced that challenge with energy and determination.

And I want to pay tribute too, to all the thousands of party members and supporters who worked so hard and to all the party staff who put their heart and soul into their work.

The party is still very raw, very upset and we are still all trying to process emotionally and intellectually what happened on May 7^th.

We lost. And we lost badly. There is no getting away from that. And it came as a shock.

We thought we had a fighting chance of forming the next Government and the 10pm exit poll was a body blow none of us will ever forget.

It took me back to 1992.  Now we see that election as a stepping stone to victory in 1997.  But that wasn't how it looked then.  Then, as now, we thought we could win. Then, as now, the polls fuelled that thinking and they were horribly wrong. Then, as now, we fought a good campaign under a leader with many fine qualities. The defeat was all the more painful because then as now, minutes before the exit poll landed, we thought we were heading into government.   

Late afternoon on election day in 1992, I popped up to Transport House, Smith Square, which was our HQ. Tory HQ was in Smith Square too and who should I see wandering around on his own but the Prime Minister - John Major. He looked like a beaten man. But he wasn't beaten - we were. 

Something else about then. People said we were finished. Not just opponents and commentators. Many of our own activists thought that too. And so did many of our MPs.

It was incredibly bleak.  At our campaign after-party in Milbank I just couldn't stop thinking of what lay ahead for my constituents and I couldn't stop crying.  Later, I remember being in our One Parliament Street offices with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.  Tony - who'd before he became an MP had been a highly successful barrister and had three young children said –and he was only half-jokingly – “What on earth is the point in being a wasted political generation? We’re never going to be in government again and we could do something more useful - and a lot easier - outside politics.” We all stayed and we stayed to fight.

I don’t need to remind you what happened five short years later. We won a truly stunning victory, the first of three, a massive majority that enabled us to do so much to make this a better country.

Let me be clear, I am not saying that we are in the same circumstances we found ourselves in after 1992. That was then, this is now, and it’s a very different era. But some things are always necessary for our party do well. 

• A strong and charismatic leader in touch with the values of the majority.
• A talented and largely united team.
• Values and policies that speak to people's concerns and choices.
• A big picture message about change and how to meet the challenges of the time.
• Local connections which give people confidence in Labour and demonstrate we are on their side.

And, from defeat then, all of that emerged.

It was not obvious at the time when the pain was raw.  There were shocks, setbacks and rows and even the death of our leader.

But on May 1 1997, five years after we were said to be finished, five years after many of us thought we were finished, we were back and Tony Blair was prime minister with a three figure majority.

I remind you of all this, not to say we should be New Labour, Old Labour, Blairite, Brownite, Blue Labour or even Pink Labour. These labels are unhelpful in what is a different era.

I remind you of what it was like then to raise your hopes that great victory can follow shocking defeat. But also to remind you that when we are honest with ourselves about our failures, and above all honest with the public about our failures, then we have shown that we can come back and we can win. We can win in 2020 if we are honest with ourselves and with the public and if we make the right decisions. If we take the right approach now, we will lay the foundations for our fightback and our next win.

How did last Friday morning feel for us? Terrible. But did you notice something else? Did you notice the seeming lack of any real joy or delight among the public that David Cameron was back?

This is not to re-run the arguments of the campaign. It is simply to say that it was not so much that he won but that we lost.

That is painful to admit. But true. So we should admit it.

We fought a good campaign. But not good enough.

We won over new support. But not enough.

We had some good ideas and some good policies which I am certain would have made this a better country than the one we will see between now and 2020.

But none of it was enough. When the undecideds finally decided they decided they did not want us in power.

LEARN LESSONS

We need to learn the lessons of what went wrong. There is lots of conjecture; lots of personal anecdotes; lots of commentary from people including those who are now wise after the event.

We need a forensic, honest examination of what happened which looks at and understands the results, looks at the statistics and the all the science, and hears from our party, our candidates who won and who lost but above all, the public.

I am in the process of commissioning this important work and will have to more to say on it when the details are finalised.

But there is one lesson we can and must heed right away. When it comes to elections the public are the boss. We do not question their decision. We heed it.

CHOOSING OUR NEW LEADER

In modern politics so much of the attention and responsibility is on the leader and Ed took responsibility.

And now we must choose a new leader now and get the right leader, the best leader, the one who can lead us forward from September 12th so that every month, every year we are making progress to a General Election victory the country will, we believe, need more than ever.

But this defeat is also an opportunity to have a much deeper and more fundamental debate about our future than we had when Gordon took over from Tony and when Ed took over from Gordon.

The party must get the right leader. But the party must also take stock of much more than the captain on the bridge. This is also about the direction in which we steer. And that too must be a big part of the debate on which we have now embarked. 

As interim Leader, my role in the leadership election is to make sure the process is clear and the rules are followed and I will stay absolutely neutral.

But there is one thought I want to insert firmly into the process right now. I want to insert it into the minds of candidates, but above all into the minds of MPs who will choose the field of candidates, and of members and supporters who will choose the leader from that field.

As we conduct this debate, as we elect our leader and deputy leader, we must have the public in the forefront of our minds. We must let the public in.

Into our minds and into the process as we make the decisions about who is our next leader and how we go forward.  So we are going to start that with how we do the leadership elections.  When I stood for the leadership it was a cosy contest in front of people who - like us - love politics and love Labour. Very different from the rest of the country! 

We asked ourselves - who do we like?  That was the wrong question.  We should have asked - as we made our choice - who does the country like.  Who knows, if we had done that perhaps Labour would have chosen Alan Johnson rather than me!

Now, we have already fundamentally and radically changed the way we elect our leader and deputy leader – indeed that is an important part of Ed Miliband’s legacy.

We will allow people who are not party members or who are not affiliated supporters through a trade union or Labour linked organisation like the Fabian society to have a vote. Anyone – providing they are on the electoral register – can become a registered supporter, pay £3 and have a vote to decide our next leader. This is the first time a political party in this country has opened up its leadership contest in this way and I think there will be a real appetite for it out there. Already we have had over 30,000 people join us as full party members since May 7^th but this is a new and innovative way of letting the public in on an important decision. And we have changed the rules so that it means one person has one vote regardless whether they are an MP, a Shadow Cabinet member, a trade unionist or a registered supporter – everyone’s vote is equal, as it should be.

But that in my view is not enough. We have to make the whole process more public facing.

If I think back to 2010 leadership election I remember a comradely and well organised debate. I remember hustings that were packed with party members keen to hear what the various contenders had to say.

We have to get to the heart of why we lost and making the right decisions about how we win. We should not be afraid of differences. We should thrash them out.

And nor should we be afraid of letting the public in to see those arguments. Because if there is one thought that should drive the thinking as we elect a new leadership team it is this - which of them has the best qualities and leadership skills most likely to win over the support of the public?

Not the politically obsessed public, the people like us, but the people who most of the time are busy getting on with their lives, not thinking about politics.

That’s why our hustings have got to be different.

I want the members and supporters who elect our new leader to see not just how the candidates react and relate to the party faithful but to see how they react and relate to those we need to win over.

We need robust, tough, televised hustings which involve the public.

We have begun talks with broadcasters about how we make these happen. We are very open and keen to make this work. As interim leader, I have one principle here - let the public in.

And we cannot just hold hustings in our Labour heartlands, we have to go to areas where we didn’t win. Because ultimately we are electing the team that we think can lead not just the party but lead the country. And that must be our guiding thought.  Last time our hustings - in front of Labour members - were in cities where Labour won.  We must have those hustings now in towns and suburbs where Labour lost. We have to go back and ask local people from those areas to be brutally honest about what they think of us and what they want from us.

We need to see this process as one that is not merely electing a new leader and deputy leader. But one that is helping to rebuild old connections and fashion new connections with a public that rejected us North and South.

So I want to see leadership hustings where members bring non-members. Where someone who voted Labour brings along someone who voted Tory or SNP or didn't vote at all.

We will use the setback to build membership. More than 30,000 people have joined Labour as members since May 7.  That is a small silver lining. There are thousands of people who are so motivated by the disappointment of defeat, they want to get involved, want to do more. Let's turn 30,000 into 60000 and let's turn 60 into 100,000.

And let's welcome them, not by saying this is when we have meetings and this is how we do them and that is how it has always worked. But how do you want to be involved?  Online or in person? How much do you want to be involved? And fitting it around your work and your family not the other way round so that these new members help us on our way on the journey back from defeat?

EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION

We can't be the government we wanted to be.  We applied but we didn't get that job.  But we have a different one. 

We are the Opposition and that is a very important job which we will do to the best of our ability and with all the commitment and energy we brought to the election campaign and would have brought to government. 

The Tories got elected but they must be held to account - on the NHS, on jobs, on living standards, on fairness. 

We have 232 Labour MPs and that is what we will do. 

We are strengthened in that task by the injection of new blood in the PLP - one in 5 of our MPs our new with 53 Labour MPs elected for the first time - from every region of England and from Wales. 

That task of Opposition is for all of us - including and particularly the leadership candidates. 

Our leadership candidates will be dissecting our defeat and setting out a vision for the future.  But I want to see them showing that they can successfully challenge the government now. 

That is, after all, what they are going to have to do if they win.  So let's see them do it. 

CONCLUSION

These are dark days for the Labour party. We are all still bruised by our failure on May 7^th and we are still coping with the aftermath.

But we will move on and move forwards.

Amid the wreckage of defeat, it seems hard to see where the next victory might come from.

I’ve been in Labour politics for 34 years. I have known stunning victories as well as devastating defeat. 

But what experience and history tell me is that sometimes it is from that exact same wreckage that the next victory does indeed emerge. That is how we must approach our thinking and our development over the next five years.

These are my priorities as interim leader.

• Being a strong opposition.
• Maintaining stability and unity - we will thrash out discussions and it will be painful but we won’t tear ourselves apart.
• We will learn the lessons.
• And we will elect a new leader and deputy.

But above all, we will let the public in and elect a leader who can lead not just the party but the whole country.

[ends]

On Monday, 18^th May I addressed the House of Commons as Interim Leader of the Labour Party for the election of the Speaker.  John Bercow was elected as Speaker.

You can read my speech below, or follow the link here.

Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) (Lab): I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Sir Gerald Kaufman) on becoming Father of the House, but to prevent us all from falling headlong into patriarchy, perhaps I may remind everyone that there is a mother of the House—and it is me! Together, we are going to do good parenting. As the Prime Minister said, my right hon. Friend has had a long and distinguished career, including writing that book, “How to be a Minister”, which we were all hoping we would be poring over right now—but it seems that was not to be and that Conservative Ministers will have the benefit of my right hon. Friend’s wisdom.

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) on returning to the House as Prime Minister. We applied for the job but we did not get it, and he did. However, we have the very important job of being the official Opposition, and we will be fearless and effective in carrying it out. That is what people in this country expect of us and that is what we will do.

Members from all parties have been elected for the first time, and I warmly welcome them all. One in five of our own 232 Labour Members has been elected for the first time. As the Prime Minister said, there are now

18 May 2015 : Column 6

many more women MPs in all parts of the House. When I was first elected to Parliament in 1982, only 3% of MPs were women; today, we are nearly 30%. We still have a long way to go, but we have made real progress.

To all those entering the House for the first time, I want to say that we are all on an equal footing. You are not trainee MPs or apprentice or junior MPs: you are the real thing. You, along with all of us, have been elected by constituents to stand up and be a fierce champion for them. When you get the inevitable advice in the coming days telling you to learn the ropes and keep your head down—possibly for five or 10 years—I would say, ignore it! You did not get elected to keep your head down; you were elected to stand up for your constituents.

In doing that, you will all have a strong ally in the Speaker, whom I congratulate on his reappointment. He may be small in stature, but make no mistake: in this office, he is a giant. Of all the Speakers who have sat in the Speaker’s Chair since I was elected, he is the best. Whether you be a Government Back Bencher or on the Opposition Benches, when you want to speak up for your constituents, Mr Speaker will make sure that your voice and your case are heard. This Speaker is the fifth since I was elected, and this Prime Minister is the fifth since I was elected, too. Of the two of them, I will leave Members to guess which is my favourite!

Harriet Harman MP, Acting Leader of the Labour Party, responding to Jim Murphy announcing his intention to resign as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, said:

“Jim has given so much to the Labour Party over the last twenty years. He, I know reluctantly, took the responsibility for leading Scottish Labour at the most difficult election they have ever faced. He did so with incredible energy, purpose and dignity.

“As a cabinet minister and leader of his party in Scotland, Jim has been a hugely important figure in the Labour Party. He leaves with the best wishes and thanks of our movement.

“It will now be for the Scottish Labour Party to choose its next leader.”

Ends

Harriet Harman MP, Acting Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“Labour is today announcing the timetable for electing our next Leader and Deputy Leader.

“The General Election saw the Labour Party suffer a serious defeat, and over the coming weeks we need an open and honest debate on the right way forward.

“Our challenge now is to use this time to listen and learn, to elect a new Leader and Deputy Leader who will rebuild the Labour Party in order to take the fight to this Tory Government and to stand up for Britain.

“This contest will be run under the new rules we agreed last year: a broad and open contest with one person, one vote. We want as many people as possible to take part. More than 30,000 new members have joined the party in the last few days and I hope many more members and supporters will take this opportunity to have their voice heard.

“In the meantime, Labour will be taking forward our task as the official Opposition of holding the Government to account.”

The full leadership election timetable, as agreed today by the NEC, is as follows:

Friday 15 May                              Election Period Opens

Monday 8 June                            PLP Nomination Hustings for Leader

Tuesday 9 June                           PLP Nomination Hustings for Deputy Leader

Tuesday 9 June                           PLP Nominations Open

12 noon Monday 15 June            PLP Nominations (Leader) Close

12 noon Wednesday 17 June       PLP Nominations (Deputy Leader) Close

Wednesday 17 June                    Hustings period opens

12 noon Friday 31 July                Supporting Nominations Close

12 noon Wednesday 12 August    Last date to join as member, affiliated supporter, or registered supporter

Friday 14 August                         Ballot mailing despatched

12 noon Thursday 10 September Ballot closes

Saturday 12 September               Special conference to announce result

Ends

Harriet Harman MP, Acting Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“I would like to pay tribute to Ed Miliband for his leadership of the Labour Party and to express the gratitude that party members feel for his leadership and for his decency, his commitment and his constant striving for a fairer country.

“On the resignation of Ed Miliband as Leader of the Labour Party I, as his deputy, am stepping forward to be acting leader until a new leader is elected by the party.

“It is not my intention to stay on as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party when the new Leader is elected. Therefore, I am announcing that I am stepping down as deputy leader - with my resignation taking effect when the new Leader and Deputy Leader are elected.

“With a new leadership team in place, after what has undoubtedly been a serious defeat, the Labour Party will be best placed to be the strong opposition this country needs - defending our NHS and our public services, and fighting for fairness, equality and social justice.

“That determination will be all the fiercer in the face of this Tory government.”

Ends

Lots of support for Labour at busy Queens Road station in Peckham! Thanks to Rumbi, Sham, Mariam, Rachel and Warda for joining me despite the wind and rain!

Lots of support for Labour in Nunhead this morning. Thanks to Councillor Barrie Hargrove and Shireen Ijoyah for joining me.

So many people attend the hustings in Peckham this evening that we had to have an additional event outside for the hundreds of people who couldn't get in to the packed local venue!  

There was so much support for Labour at St James the Great primary school in Peckham today. Local Councillor Johnson Situ joined me to talk to parents and carers.

Charles Horton

Managing Director, Southern Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd

Hertford House

1 Cranwood Street

London EC1V 9QS

30^th April 2015

Dear Charles,

Overcrowding at Denmark Hill station and train capacity during rush hour

Many of my constituents are very concerned about overcrowding at Denmark Hill station.

One constituent who commutes from Denmark Hill to central London tells me that the 08.04am - from Sevenoaks in Kent to London St Pancras – is regularly overcrowded by the time it reaches Denmark Hill meaning people are not able to get on the train. She also says that the trains are usually only 4 carriages long.

My constituents pay for and rightly expect a decent service from Govia Thameslink. It’s totally unacceptable for people to be left on crowded platforms waiting for the next train simply because their scheduled service does not have enough capacity.

People should not have to worry about being late for work or have the stress of travelling in a crowded carriage. There is also the potential danger of having lots of people jostling on crowded platforms. It’s hard enough for people travelling to work but impossible for people travelling with young children or if you’re elderly or disabled.

I’d be grateful if you would send me a full report outlining the immediate steps you are taking to reduce overcrowding and improve capacity at Denmark Hill station.

I look forward to your reply at the earliest convenience.

Best wishes,

Harriet Harman

Meeting parents and carers at Ilderton primary school this afternoon with local Councillor Richard Livingstone. Thanks to Head Teacher, Dean Brewer, for showing me around the school - which is open from 7.30am to 7pm with breakfast and after school clubs!

In my role as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, I appeared on the BBC London Robert Elms Show to discuss arts and culture in the capital, and how London’s vibrant cultural scene shapes the city we live in.  The discussion covered topics such as arts funding, participation in the arts by people from BME and disadvantaged backgrounds, and the film tax credit.

You can listen to the show here. 

Val Shawcross, London Assembly Member for Southwark, local Councillor Chris Gonde and Rosemary Minto joined me at the school gate this afternoon to talk to parents and carers. 

On Monday 27^th April at Theatre Royal Brighton I, along with Chris Bryant, Shadow Culture Minister, launched Labour’s Charter for Culture and the Creative Industries.  The Charter sets out Labour’s plans for culture and the creative industries, and has been supported by a number of high profile figures from the arts and culture world, including Sir Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters CBE, Sir Anish Kapoor CBE and Grayson Perry CBE. 

 You can read Labour’s Charter for Culture and the Creative industries here.

Lots of important issues raised tonight at the NUT Southwark hustings in Camberwell - supply teachers terms and conditions, free schools and academies, protecting the education budget, the NUT's Education manifesto, and the importance of voting. Thanks to all the teachers who joined us after a long busy day in the classroom, and to NUT Secretary Betty Joseph for organising it.

Lots of questions and support for Labour at the school gate this afternoon at Lyndhurst Primary school in Camberwell. Thanks to local Councillor Radha Burgess and Jane Bevis for joining me.

Lots of people to talk to this morning at the very busy Peckham Rye station. Thanks to local Councillors Johnson Situ, Nick Dolezal and Jasmine Ali, and Jo, Mark, Declan and Richard for joining me.

May 7th is a big day for people locally, for the UK and for our democracy. It’s Election Day when everyone has the right to vote.

I hope everyone will vote. People who are older are more likely to vote. But it's important for young people to vote too - and get their voice heard. People who own their own home nearly always vote. But we need to see the votes of tenants too. For our democracy to be equal we need to see the votes of everyone, younger as well as older, poorer as well as richer and black as well as white. Everyone has an equal right to vote and every vote counts the same.

Some people don't vote because they think their vote won't make any difference. But that just means that they won't have their say and everyone who does vote will.  Some people don't vote because they say all the parties are the same. But there is a huge contrast between the Tories - always helping the better off - and Labour who is on the side of working people. With the Tories we always see the NHS suffer and people on lower incomes getting worse off.  And we face the extra threat this time of UKIP who sow the seeds of division turning people against each other. We cannot solve the problems of this country by the politics of blame.

Some people don't vote because they've never voted and they don't think they know how. It's really easy and straightforward to vote. If you've got a polling card from the council you take it to where it says the polling station is - usually the local primary school or community centre. You don't need your polling card to vote. Just tell them your name and address. There are council staff there to help you if you've got any questions about the process.

I hope that you'll vote for me to be your Member of Parliament. It’s a huge honour and privilege to be your MP. And I think that our area could be so much better with a Labour government. There's a huge amount of optimism in our neighbourhoods but so many people still struggle.

If I get re-elected the people in Camberwell and Peckham will be my first priority. And one of the most important responsibilities of an MP is to help people who have problems but can't solve them and get caught up in red tape.

I hope when you're voting you will think about the people who don't have it easy and who need the backing of government to get a good home, a decent job, and health care. And I hope you will think about people in the rest of the world too. We need to tackle problems which affect us but hit hardest at poorer countries like global climate change. Have your say and vote on May 7th!

Great to talk to so many parents' and carer's at St Peter's primary school in Walworth this afternoon along with local Councillors Lorraine Lauder and Paul Fleming. Many people told me they have already voted but they took Labour posters and leaflets!