Last night, Harriet Harman refused to apologise for being part of a group that was affiliated to a pro-paedophile group in the 1970s and 1980s, instead accusing The Daily Mail, the paper to have reported this link, of a ‘smear campaign’.
So, yeah, it's a very convoluted story, but let us explain. Harriet Harman is one of Parliament's most prominent women, and is deputy leader of the Labour Party. Way back in the 1970s and 1980s, she was a left-wing activist and an official at the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) – which is now know as Liberty – as were her husband, MP Jack Dromey, and former health secretary Patricia Hewitt.
The* Daily Mail* has discovered that one of the groups affiliated with the NCCL was the sinister-sounding Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). After the The* Daily Mail* spent several weeks calling for an apology, Harman agreed to do an interview with Newsnight.
In the pre-recorded interview, she explains that PIE's affiliation with the NCCL was nowhere near as close as suggested, and explained that the NCCL was a bit of a free for all, calling it ‘an organisation which anyone could apply to join and indeed any organisation could apply to be “an affiliate” on payment of a fee’.
She is also adamant that she never did anything to support PIE. ‘It is not the case that my work, when I was at NCCL, was influenced by PIE, was apologising for paedophilia or colluding with paedophilia. That is an unfair inference and a smear.
‘My work has always been, when I was at NCCL and when I have been in politics and ministerial office, to protect children, especially from child abuse.’
She then says that The* Daily Mail* should get their own house in order before accusing her. ‘It is ironic that they are accusing me of indecency relating to children when they themselves are not above producing photographs of very young girls, titillating photos of girls in bikinis.’
You can see the interview right here:
Late last year, Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty released a public apology, saying, ‘It is a source of continuing disgust and horror that even the NCCL had to expel paedophiles from its ranks in 1983 after infiltration at some point in the 70s.’ But several commentators have noted that a similar apology or acknowledgement is still to come from Harman.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.