Harriet Harman wants half of shadow cabinet to be women

Honestly. Labour's Deputy Leader wants the rules for shadow cabinet elections to be changed so that 50% of members have to be female. The Press Association has the story.

Tim Montgomerie

1pm: Crunching the maths, FT Westminster blog looks at the current number of Labour women MPs and concludes: "By proposing that half the cabinet should be female, Harman is - ironically - suggesting that the Labour women MPs are twice as talented as the men."

3.45pm: Via Twitter, Labour Leadership contender Ed Miliband has supported Harriet Harman's 50/50 bid: