Harman brings conference to a close
Harriet Harman will bring the Labour Party conference to a close today, after a dramatic week which saw the party elect a new leader and lose one of its brightest stars to the backbenches.
Speaking to the BBC this morning Labour's deputy leader said her party needed to reflect on where it went wrong having lost the general election.
“The task is to reflect on why it is many people who were working hard to make ends meet felt we didn't really understand their concerns and didn't recognise what their hopes were,” she said.
And she said she felt there was a “new sense of re-energising of the Labour Party” now they had a new leader.
Harman also addressed the apparent spat between herself and David Miliband during Ed Miliband's speech, in which the elder Miliband rebuked Harman for applauding the new Labour leader's denunciation of the Iraq War.
"You voted for it, why are you clapping?" he asked Labour's deputy leader.
Harman responded: "I'm clapping because he is the leader. I'm supporting him."
“We were wrong about there being weapons of mass destruction, if we had known that the question of going to war would never had arisen,” she told the BBC this morning.
“I started to clap, as everyone else in the hall started to, when Ed said we were wrong.
“David Miliband muttered under his breath to me, it was a throw away remark.
“And then he himself was clapping afterwards when Ed said we needed to heal divisions and move on.
Harman said it was this “microscopic focus on every aside” that had contributed to David's decision to step back from the front line of politics.
Harman can be expected to be handed a top job in Miliband's new front bench team, possibly the health brief, having been seen to have performed well as acting leader.
Those still in Manchester will also hear from Ed Miliband's leadership campaign manager Sadiq Khan, Hilary Benn, John Denham and John Healey.
Today at conference
CAC Report
Margaret Wheeler
Transport, Environment and Housing
Sadiq Khan MP
Hilary Benn MP
Local Government Report
Jeremy Beecham
Dave Sparks
Campaigning Councillors Q&A
Housing
John Denham MP
John Healey MP
Closing Speech
Harriet Harman MP
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