Harriet Harman on Labour’s reach, Leveson and her leisure time

“Some of it is a little bit accurate. I feel sure everybody else is laughing like a drain and I’m kind of cringing,” she confesses.

Harman loves the Nicola Murray character, the harassed fictional Leader of the Opposition who often has some sardonic putdowns for the Westminster alpha males around her. “She’s brilliant, the actress who plays her. It’s very clever. But it’s a bit like a busman’s holiday watching that.”

She may be deadly serious about her politics, but no one can say the former Cabinet minister lacks a sense of humour. Right now she’s in her Commons office, working with her aide (and former stand-up comedian) Ayesha Hazarika on the gags that have become a feature of her rallying, end-of-conference speech.

In recent months, of course, many Labour MPs think The Thick of It has appeared more like a documentary than a satire. Ed Miliband himself put the word ‘Omnishambles’ (aimed originally at Nicola Murray by Malcom Tucker) in the Hansard record after the Budget earlier this year. The recent government reshuffle has added yet more comedic fodder.

However, Harman says that the infighting of the Coalition has broken out of the Westminster Village and is being picked up by voters. “It’s just a shambles with them all fighting. I was very struck when I was in Corby a couple of weeks ago where Andy Sawford is doing a big questionnaire to all the constituents. There was a lorry driver in the café of Morrison’s and one the questions was ‘how would you describe the government?’ And what was really interesting was his first word was ‘unstable’. There is a moment at which people think ‘this [infighting] is a problem, because they’re focusing on themselves not us.’”

Harman says Labour is heading to conference in “very resolute and determined” mood. Labour councillors, elected in May’s local elections, and a coherent shadow ministerial team, themselves paired with one of the 30 new candidates picked to fight a marginal seat, are contributing to the high spirits.

She says Ed Miliband’s first hand-picked Shadow Cabinet is “firing on all cylinders”. The contrast with the Government’s recently reshuffled ranks is clear, she claims.

“I’ve never seen such a… venting from the people who thought they should have been appointed and the people who were let go. It showed the divisions – they’re all pulling in different directions. That impedes good effective government actually, and the public spot that.”

She describes Justine Greening and Andrew Lansley as having been “parked” at International Development and in the Commons Leader post and predicts “disaster” will follow Jeremy Hunt’s appointment as Health Secretary. She also raises an eyebrow at the return of David Laws. “All of that stuff he [Cameron] talked about clean government, doing things differently, rebuilding trust. David Laws is back in…”

Not surprisingly, Harman is also unimpressed that there are now six government departments, including the Treasury, with no female ministers.

“What does that say to women in this country? ‘We think you’ve got nothing to contribute.’ To have whole departments where there are women-voice free zones because, oh look, the men are dealing with these departments, it’s just not ok.”

To have whole departments where there are women-voice free zones because, oh look, the men are dealing with these departments, it’s just not ok. Australia

But it isn’t just women that Harman is worried about. She believes that the Government is failing to represent the whole country. New Zealand

“The Tories are not able to do that because they don’t have representation in Scotland to speak of, hardly any in Wales, very little in the north” she argues, pointing to Labour’s resurgence in councils across the South of England as proof of her own party’s wider, nationwide appeal.

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Harriet Harman is both smiling and wincing. The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is recalling the latest episode of The Thick of It, pained by the uncanny accuracy of some of the plotlines.

Source: Stoke North Labour

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And David Cameron, she adds, has given up on parts of the country. “I think it was very telling when [Rotherham MP] Denis Macshane asked Cameron something and mentioned Rotherham, and Cameron said ‘oh well, the time anybody thinks anything positive about the Tories in Rotherham hell will freeze over.’ We would never say, ‘the time anybody wants to be Labour in Guildford hell would freeze over’. It’s about… a commitment that if you are going to be Prime Minister, you are going to be the Government, you have to do it for the whole country. I think it was Cameron’s Mitt Romney moment. It was, absolutely. I was so struck by that.”