Former Powerhouse Minister in spat with Harman over equality
THE FORMER Northern Powerhouse Minister Andrew Percy was yesterday caught up in a spat with Labour’s Harriet Harman, after he accused her of making “belittling and insulting comments” about the male dominance of the UK’s Brexit negotiating team.
The Brigg and Goole MP dismissed Ms Harman’s comments as “disparaging” as he told the Commons that equality was about more than women’s rights.
It came after former Labour deputy leader Ms Harman had welcomed a move to make the Women and Equalities Select Committee a permanent fixture in the Commons.
Complaining that “most decisions... are made by men”, she added: “You only have to look at the Brexit negotiating team – God help us. Eight of them, seven men, one woman – and I just ask myself why on Earth they couldn’t have selected that team on merit.”
The row came as a cross-party group of peers warned Ministers that they need to step up their efforts to keep Parliament informed of developments in Brexit negotiations if they want to avoid being caught off-guard by briefings emerging from Brussels.
Publishing their latest report, the House of Lords EU Committee said the Government’s refusal to be fully transparent on Brexit is partly to blame for a series of “uncontrolled and unpredictable” leaks of official documents.
They added that Ministers will need to “match the level of transparency” displayed by the EU if they want to retain “any control” over crucial information over the coming months. They also advised the Government to take further steps to allow Parliamentary scrutiny of its plans if Ministers are to live up to promises to keep MPs “regularly informed, updated and engaged”.
In his response to Ms Harman, Mr Percy argued that it does not “help the case” for equalities “to stand up and make what I thought were belittling and insulting comments about... one negotiating team on the basis of its gender”.