Harriet Harman Named Starmer Adviser on Women and Girls

On 9 May 2026, 10 Downing Street announced that Keir Starmer had appointed Harriet Harman as the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women and Girls. That may sound like a routine Westminster move, but it is really a clue to how this government wants to organise its work on women’s safety, opportunity and representation. If you are trying to read past the headline, that is where the interesting part begins. (gov.uk)

According to the Downing Street announcement, Harman’s job is to advise the Prime Minister on how to get government delivering for women and girls. The brief is broad: she is expected to work with ministers across government on tackling violence against women and girls, improving economic opportunity and increasing representation, while also drawing on work with women across Parliament to identify action on misogyny and on women’s place in public life. **What this means:** this is meant to cut across departments, not sit neatly inside just one of them. (gov.uk)

The same notice says Harman will work with the Cabinet Secretary on culture across the Civil Service and ministerial offices, will report directly to the Prime Minister, and will do the job in an unpaid part-time capacity. That tells you something important about the post. It is not being presented as ceremonial. It is being framed as a role close to the top of government, with a brief that joins policy, workplace culture and public representation together. (gov.uk)

Why Harman? Her official gov.uk biography says she was the MP for Peckham from 1982 to 2024 and entered the House of Lords in August 2024. It also lists senior roles including Minister for Women, Secretary of State for Equalities and Solicitor General. The Downing Street announcement adds that she has long been associated with work on women’s political representation, maternity rights and action against violence towards women and girls. In plain terms, the government has chosen someone with long experience of how Parliament and government actually work. (gov.uk)

Downing Street also points back to Harman’s earlier record in office. It says that, as Solicitor General, she led a drive inside government to make tackling domestic violence a priority, linking that work to the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act and to the creation of 60 specialist domestic violence courts. The Act itself is the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, so this is not just a line about campaigning language; it is an attempt to tie her appointment to legal and court-based change as well. (gov.uk)

The wider backdrop matters just as much as the individual appointment. The Home Office’s current strategy, *Freedom from violence and abuse*, was published in December 2025 and says it sets out the government’s vision and actions for meeting its ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. Official government documents also describe the scale of violence against women and girls as a national emergency. In that context, Harman’s new role looks like one way of keeping that promise live across ministers, officials and public institutions. For readers, that is the real test to watch next: not the title on its own, but whether the promised action becomes visible in law, support and public life. (gov.uk)