Labour Party activists, friends and well-wishers of Harriet Harman, Camberwell and Peckham’s long-serving MP, praised her 40 years of dedicated service at a reception on Wednesday night (November 2). In December 2021, Harman said she was standing down and would not run again for parliament.

News of the farewell event, which soon began to circulate on social media, generated retweeted pictures of the night and freshly minted opinion on Harman. Opinions were mixed, with some Twitter-users expressing approval of the Labour leader, and others less enthusiastic about her work.

Rachel Wilbur, Harman’s friend and aide tweeted:

And John Mcternan, former political secretary of former Labour prime minister Tony Blair noted the event on Twitter:

The farewell do seemed to be an exclusive invitation-only event. There is no publicly available recording of Harman’s speech though there are photos on some social media accounts of the MP at the party, surrounded by a group of people.

Harman was elected MP for the then constituency of Peckham in 1982. With nearly 300 Labour Party members, Harman’s renamed Camberwell and Peckham constituency is considered very active.

After the former Labour MP for Camberwell died in 1982, Harman, then seven months pregnant, contested the byelection and won.

Harman, who routinely takes on one of the biggest constituency casework loads of all MPs with 5,000 cases a year, is regarded as a hands-on politician. An MP’s casework includes sorting out housing, immigration status and benefit entitlements.

Harman has become known for her work on empowering women in politics. When she was first elected to parliament in 1982, just 3% of MPs were women. Harman campaigned for women to be half of all Labour Party shortlists for parliamentary seats where male Labour MPs were retiring and for places to be reserved for women in the shadow cabinet.