Harriet Harman faces our viewer panel

Harriet Harman, MP, Leader of the Commons

Labour's Deputy Leader agrees that MPs should not earn money from jobs outside Parliament.

Later, she says her party's by-election campaign in Crewe & Nantwich has not been entirely 'positive'.

Crewe & Nantwich campaign

Labour's Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, has admitted that her party's by-election campaign in Crewe & Nantwich has not been entirely positive.

Speaking on BBC1's Politics Show she appreared uncomfortable when shown the front page of Labour's local constituency party website - which shows a top hat and bowtie alongside the phrase "Do You Want A Tory Con Man or a Dunwoody?".

She said the "It's not the most positive campaigning, no, but I think most of the campaign is focusing on you know, the good that has happened over the last ten years since Labour has been in government in Crewe and Nantwich and also our plans for the future".

Harriet Harman transcript

The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, Chris Huhne, said on the programme "A lot of Labour people are going to be actually thinking about voting Liberal Democrat in the run up to Thursday, and I believe there's going to be a very pleasant surprise for our candidate on Thursday"

Chris Huhne transcript

MPs' Pay and Expenses

Harriet Harman with viewer panel

Ms Harman spoke to Bob and Jude from the Politics Show viewers' panel on the issue of MPs' pay and expenses.

Last week, the High Court ruled that Parliament must publish details of some MPs' expenses and addresses. The legal bill has been reported as around £200,000.

Harriet Harman said "The judgment is quite a long and detailed one and we'll have to look at it and take legal advice, but I think it was worth that money, to actually put forward the argument to the court, that there is a security issue here and in what other walk of life, I mean police chiefs don't have their addresses, where they're living in the papers."

She also spoke about issue of MPs having jobs outside Parliament. She agreed with the viewers panel that this can be a distraction from their duties at Westminster.

"I think people would be more confident if they know that MPs are focused only on their MP job, not actually distracted by earning lots of money", she said.

Viewer Panel recommendations

Q&A with the viewer panel: how did they get on?

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NB:The transcripts were typed from a recording and not copied from original scripts.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for their accuracy.