‘You’re too pretty for politics’ - did Harman say it or not?

First she’s accused of patronising women in general with the launch of Labour’s pink bus – now Harriet Harman’s under fire for patronising one particular woman, Karen Danczuk, the 31-year-old wife of Rochdale’s Labour MP Simon Danczuk.

Karen, who is well known to Twitter followers (she has 38,000 of them) for the “cleavage selfies” she likes to post, claims that Harman once told her she was “too pretty” for politics and should join Girls Aloud instead.

“It was at a conference in Manchester,” the Daily Telegraph quotes Karen as saying. “I wanted a photo with her and she said: 'You're far too pretty to be in politics'. I suppose I've proved her wrong - I did go on to be a councillor.”

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Needless to say, Labour’s deputy leader categorically denies the story. “It’s inconceivable I would have ever said that,” Harman responded yesterday.

“I have always believed it’s what you do in politics, not what you look like. I have never discouraged a woman from getting involved in politics on the basis of their looks.”

Mrs Danczuk, says the Telegraph, is proud of her appearance, and “regularly tweets pictures of her upper torso to an army of followers”. Others call her “notorious”. She herself writes on her Twitter page: “I am the Queen of the Selfie. I was a caged bird, then I learnt to fly.”

Little wonder some are asking: did Harman mean “too pretty” or “too petty”?