Harriet Harman's reputation took another battering yesterday as she tried to defend her decision to wear a stab-proof vest during a walkabout in her constituency with police.
Labour's deputy leader claimed it was no different to putting on a hairnet to tour a food factory, or a hard hat on a building site.
In a radio interview, she denied she was too frightened to walk the streets of Peckham, South London, without protection.
**Another New Labour coward, just like the one eye'd coward that refuses to let the people decide on Europe and hides away in No. 10 Downing Street...
She insisted she wore the vest out of courtesy to the police officers she went out on patrol with and to show support for the Government's community policing initiative.
And in a remark that could be seen to offend her Asian constituents, Miss Harman appeared to suggest she dresses to pander to her voters - claiming wearing the vest was like wearing "an Indian outfit going to meet Indian constituents, it's just about wearing the kit".
But BBC Today programme presenter John Humphrys told her: "You wear a hard hat on a building site because there are dangers there.
"There is the danger that something might drop on your head. You don't need to wear a bullet-proof vest on the streets of London, do you?"
Miss Harman responded: "No of course you don't. It was just a courtesy, there was no security issue whatsoever, it was almost like wearing the kit when you go out with the team.
"I didn't have to wear a stab-proof jacket. I put it on just as a matter of courtesy and because I was going out with the team."
She added: "The idea that I put that on because I was fearful of being out and about in my own constituency at nine in the morning is just ridiculous."
Harriet asks the officer next to her to hold her hand....?
Labour insiders were last night appalled by the way Miss Harman tried to defuse the row.
"It was hideous," one said. They fear her comments, in which she dismissed the story as "outrageous", will overshadow her first appearance as Mr Brown's stand-in for Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon.
In barely eight months as deputy leader Miss Harman, who is MP for Camberwell and Peckham, has racked up a list of political blunders that have severely damaged her reputation among Labour MPs.
"No one takes her seriously," one minister said, "and the idea of her appearing at PMQs is frankly terrifying. "The Tories will have a field day."
A picture of her on the walkabout - taken by one of her assistants who then sent it to the Press - showed her in a piece of the Kevlar-reinforced armour routinely worn by police officers.
What was supposed to be a publicity stunt backfired spectacularly for the public-school educated minister as it drew attention to Labour's patchy record on crime.
Miss Harman's gaffe followed Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's admission earlier this year that she was afraid to walk the streets of London alone at night.
Gordon Brown last night offered cautious support to his deputy, insisting she had been promoting community policing, after initially ducking questions at his monthly Press conference.
But her actions were ridiculed by opposition politicians, who claim they prove how unsafe Britain's streets have become under Labour.
Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for London mayor, said: "Harriet Harman is now the third Labour politician to express how unsafe she feels on London's streets.
"Yet the Labour mayor continues to bury his head in the sand, telling everyone that crime has gone down in this city. The simple fact is that 27 teenagers were killed last year.
"Londoners do not have the luxury of personal police protection or stab-proof jackets."
Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick said: "The fact the deputy leader has to wear a stab-proof jacket to protect her from her own constituents is a sad indictment of mayor Ken Livingstone's failure to deal with gun and knife crime."
Yes Harriet famous for her statement saying that Fidel was a hero of the left lacks the courage to go out to face her voters without body armour!
What a coward, just like all those who carry New Labour party membership cards.
Tags: New Labour, Cyclops, Cool Britannia, Politics, amoral cunts
2 people have spoken:
"...is a sad indictment of mayor Ken Livingstone's failure to deal with gun and knife crime."
Keep it to an acceptable level, like out of the media, he means. Unfortunately both sides seem to be of the same idea that you lot should remain unarmed and essentially defenseless, just that it's worse under Nu Labor.
None the less, like you said, a coward and on top of it, a lying, incompetent one too.
And another thing, if she was just wearing it to blend in, doesn't it tell these morons something, that if cops have to wear stab vests, that's because they're getting stabbed. I mean hello, they didn't always wear them and if it's less safe for police now, it's worse for civilians.
Well said, looking forward to seeing Red Ken getting thrashed out of office.
I shall be raising a glass to Boris on that day!
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