Women aren’t past it at 60, says Speaker hopeful Harman

HARRIET HARMAN has urged MPS to vote for her to be Speaker to prove that women over 60 are not “past it”.

The veteran Labour MP compared herself to the Queen, 93, Helen Mirren, the 74-year-old actress, and House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, 79, saying that electing her would send “a powerful message” to older women.

The 69-year-old – a former Cabinet minister and deputy prime minister – is the most experienced in a field of nine MPS battling to replace John Bercow who is standing down on Oct 31.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she said: “There is a wealth of wisdom and experience in older women which is overlooked and it is really a generation that actually knows its capabilities and is not prepared to be told, ‘no, we want somebody else’.

“Somebody of my age in the chair would send an incredibly powerful message to older women in the country that actually they have got the qualities that are needed and that they are not past it because they are past 60.

“I am 69. I am miles younger than the Queen or Helen Mirren. I am like a slip of a girl compared to Nancy Pelosi...

“When men get older they are regarded as wise, mature, a sort of George Clooney, glamorous maturity.

“Older women are yet to have their day and I want to be at the forefront of pushing that forward.”

She is proposing a “speaker’s conference” to assess whether the powers that go with the post should be put down in writing after the stormy final three years of Mr Bercow’s tenure.

Candidates will be questioned in public about their plans for the role during a series of hustings this week.

Ms Harman is also planning to tour the UK to ask voters what they want from their next Commons Speaker.