Harriet Harman is Yin to Gordon Brown's Yang. While the Labour leader quotes Gertrude Himmelfarb's philosophy on the Enlightenment, his deputy hands out recipes for her “foolproof” asparagus tart. He is a state-educated Scot who has a cupboard full of navy suits; she is a private-school girl from Middle England with a nice line in brightly patterned Jigsaw tops. He is a natural pessimist, she is an instinctive optimist, a wide-eyed enthusiast who is never happier than when throwing herself into a cause. When she was campaigning for the deputy leadership, she made a virtue of the contrast, describing herself as Radio 2 to his Radio 4.

Even Ms Harman, however, cannot have found this week easy listening. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, has admitted that the economy is going down the pan, her party is disintegrating and the Equality and Human Rights Commission has concluded that the glass ceiling - against which Labour's in-house feminist has campaigned all her life - has become a concrete platform for many women at work. To make matters worse, the Leader of the Commons was recently included in a line-up of dowdy politicians. “It was all about how the British women were awful and frumpy,” she tells us. “I thought in that case I'm going to be really frumpy. I'm not going to wash my hair and I won't spend any money on nice clothes.”

This would fit with the new mood of frugality created by the credit crunch. Ms Harman admits that the Government is suffering badly from the downturn. “When people feel that their lives are more of a struggle than they used to be, then that expresses itself in dissatisfaction with the Government,” she said when we asked whether Mr Darling was right to say that people are “p***ed off” with Labour.

Politics cannot, in her view, be detached from economics. “The main reason why we are low in the polls is because people are facing difficult circumstances.” The Chancellor was, she believes, right to suggest that the global economic situation is worse than it has been for 60 years. “I could not disagree with anything that he said,” she said. “It is a very major external economic shock because of the coming together of the credit crunch and food and oil prices. We have got to act, and our actions have got to be particularly focused on those who cannot sit out the recession.”

Like Mr Darling, Ms Harman thinks that Labour has failed in recent months to get its message across. “We have had to say something different from what we have been saying for the past ten years. We have had a message, which is, ‘Unemployment is getting lower, GDP is rising, you are continuing to feel that your prospects are sound' - and that last bit has changed. We need to have a different conversation with the country now.”

Some on the Labour benches think that a new leader is the answer. Ms Harman said that this would be a distraction. “There is not going to be a leadership challenge, nor should there be,” she said. Will Mr Brown be Prime Minister at the next election? “Yes.” Can Labour win? “Absolutely. Gordon is a person of exceptional economic experience and is absolutely the best person to see us through this difficult time as Prime Minister,” she said.

Asked whether any MPs had suggested to her, as the party's elected deputy, that she should go to the Labour leader and ask him to stand down if things did not improve, she replied: “I am not going to answer that question.”

She defended David Miliband's decision to publish an article setting out his vision for the country. “I do,not disagree with anything that was written in the article,” she said.

It is clear, however, that she is angry with the plotters, such as Charles Clarke, who said this week that Labour faced “utter destruction” at the polls if it continued on the same track. “When you are elected as a Labour MP you should think about the interests of the people you represent. That means in difficult times thinking about the circumstances that are facing them, not about us.”

Ms Harman, who is also Equality Minister, has always been dedicated to furthering the cause of women. She must have been horrified by the report this week that found that there had been a fall in the number of women in top jobs. “It is the inevitable two steps forward, one step back,” she said. “It is a long process of slow change. We have not broken through to a state of grace and equality because it is a struggle. What is required is a huge change of culture, and that does not happen by itself.” The post-feminists are, in her view, as bad as the anti-feminists. “There are some people who think the battle is won. If only it were. We are making progress but we have got farther to go.”

The Government is preparing an Equality Bill, which will allow companies to use positive discrimination to choose women rather than men to sit on their boards. “If you have got a large number of women in the workforce, what does it say when they have not got a role at the top? They are saying to women working farther down, ‘You are fine but please do not rise to the board. That is not your place.'”

Ms Harman also has the judiciary in her sights. “The judiciary says: ‘This is about our intellect, our wisdom, our experience and our integrity. This is about merit, therefore we cannot water it down by having too many women or ethnic minorities.' But it is not a meritocracy if it is working in a way which is exclusive. This is not about somebody's right to be a judge, it is about our right in this country to have the very best judiciary to exercise the wisdom on things that affect women. An all-male environment, whether it is the judges' chambers or the company board, does not understand women's lives.” It also needs to become easier for women to work on their own terms. “If you have to work seven days a week and your staff-bonding exercise takes place in a lap-dancing class then many women will say no, thank you,” she said. Sir Alan Sugar, who suggested that companies were not hiring women because of increased maternity rights, appals her. “That reminds me of people saying in the Seventies if you have an Equal Pay Act women will be driven out of the workforce,” she said. “Women's role in the workplace is so important. There is not a single bit of the economy or services that would work if women were not there. And women do have children.”

She is determined that men should get out the dusters at home. Does her husband, Jack Dromey, the trade unionist, do his share of domestic chores? “I am not going to answer that question. I taught myself to cook and became an absolute devotee of Delia, Nigella and Jamie when I got pushed from the Cabinet. All my family has eaten better after I got sacked.”

Sarah Palin should send her her recipe for moose burgers. “Men underestimate Palin at their peril,” Ms Harman said. “They say she is inexperienced but what message does that send out to all mothers who have learnt from a different kind of experience? The danger for the Democrats is that she could make herself a symbol of a new kind of female politician.”

Yet British women MPs seem to be having a tougher time than when Barbara Castle, Margaret Thatcher and Shirley Williams were jostling for power. Now women are seen as tokens. Is it not time for another woman British leader? Does she want the job if Gordon Brown is ousted?

Ms Harman looked flustered and consults her briefing paper. “I cannot remember the answer to that.”

Minister's CV

MP for Camberwell and Peckham, South London, since 1997 and for Peckham, 1982-97

Born: July 30, 1950

Married in 1982 to Jack Dromey, now deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and treasurer of the Labour Party

Children: Two sons, one daughter

Education: St Paul's Girls' School; politics degree at York University before qualifying as solicitor

Career: Brent Community Law Centre 1975-78; legal officer, National Council for Civil Liberties, 1978-82; after election set up the first Parliamentary Labour Party Women's Group; opposition Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 1992-94; opposition frontbench spokesman on employment (1994-95), health (1995-96) and social security (1996-97); Secretary of State for Social Security, 1997-98, and Solicitor-General, 2001-05; elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 2007 and appointed Chairman of the Labour Party, Leader of the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Equalities, Minister for Women and Lord Privy Seal

Hobbies: Cooking and gardening. Claims never to have spent more than £50 on a handbag.

Source: Times research

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