Harriet Harman condemns 'Daily Mail smear campaign' over alleged support for paedophile rights

 
Attack: Harriet Harman accused the Mail of "reshaping the facts"
Staff|Agency25 February 2014
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has condemned "horrible and untrue" allegations about her historic involvement in paedophile rights campaigns.

Mrs Harman said she was the victim of a "politically-motivated smear campaign" by the Daily Mail, saying she had "done nothing wrong".

"They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse, of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child pornography laws. These are horrific allegations and I strongly deny them all of them," she said in a statement.

Mrs Harman went on: "The Mail have tried to make me guilty by way of guilt by association.

"NCCL was an organisation which anyone could apply to join and indeed any organisation could apply to be "an affiliate" on payment of a fee. When I was at NCCL there were around 6,000 members and nearly 1,000 affiliated organisations of which PIE was one.

"Members and affiliates decided the organisation's policy at the AGM from year to year.

"I was aware that because NCCL opposed censorship and supported gay rights, paedophiles had sought to exploit that and use NCCL as a vehicle to make their arguments. But by the time I came to work for NCCL this vile organisation had already been vigorously challenged within the organisation. Jack Dromey was instrumental in that challenge when he took over the chair of NCCL in 1976."

Mrs Harman said she had gone to work for the NCCL because she had supported its work on gender and racial equality, and against domestic violence.

"Since being elected to the House of Commons in 1982 and during my times in Ministerial Office I have always championed the rights of those subjected to sexual abuse - especially women and children," she added.

"I hope The Daily Mail will stop this campaign of smear and innuendo against me. I have done nothing wrong and am guilty of none of their grotesque allegations."

Labour strategists are understood to have decided they needed to tackle the allegations "vigorously", as they did after the Mail criticised Ed Miliband's late father Ralph last year.

Read More

Mr Miliband heaped praise on Mrs Harman earlier today, insisting he did not "set any store" by the claims.

"I know she has a long and proud record of being on the right side of all of these issues," he said.

In a separate statement, Mr Dromey - a shadow home affairs spokesman - said the allegations were "beneath contempt".

"Sexual abuse of children is evil and I have always viewed paedophiles and any group associated with them as evil," he said.

"During my time on the NCCL Executive, I was at the forefront of repeated public condemnations of PIE and their despicable views. Then, when I was elected Chairman, I took them on.

"I personally chaired the NCCL Conference that, on my recommendation, refused to back by a massive majority a loathsome motion from a leading light in PIE calling on NCCL to support the so-called 'rights' of paedophiles.

"Indeed, my stand was denounced in a leaflet distributed by PIE to the delegates to the Conference.

"Like many organisations in the 1970s, NCCL had been infiltrated but that was the moment the tide was turned. I closed the Conference saying that we had to stand up for the rights of children not to be sexually abused and that adults guilty of abuse were the lowest of the low.

"I was then the first to argue that paedophiles could have no place in NCCL.

"As a lifelong opponent of evil men who abuse children, the accusations of the Daily Mail are untrue and beneath contempt."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in