From
the BBC:
Harriet Harman is the new deputy leader of the Labour Party, after a seven-week contest to replace John Prescott.
The 56-year-old justice minister pipped favourite Alan Johnson and four other MPs to win the ballot of party and union members, Labour MPs and MEPs.
She got 50.4% of votes to Mr Johnson's 49.6% after all the other contestants' second preferences were reallocated.
She will also become party chairwoman, Gordon Brown announced as he succeeded Tony Blair as Labour Party leader.
Mr Brown, who takes over as prime minister on Wednesday, paid tribute to Ms Harman as he accepted the leadership unopposed.
The deputy contest used a complicated system where the last place candidate was eliminated in a series of rounds, and their second preferences reallocated until one contender got more than 50% of the vote.
In the first round she was first choice among Labour Party members, second choice among MPs and MEPS, but fifth choice of union members.
The closeness of the contest meant that Ms Harman did not take the lead or pass the 50% mark until the fifth round of voting.
She only overtook Mr Johnson in the fifth round, as more of Jon Cruddas's backers put her down as their second choice than put Mr Johnson down.
Ms Harman, the wife of senior Transport and General Workers' Union official - and Labour Party treasurer - Jack Dromey, has close links to Mr Brown.
Political comeback
Her election completes a remarkable comeback from 1998 when she was sacked from Mr Blair's first Cabinet after public disputes with her minister Frank Field.
Despite that setback she managed to return to the Labour frontbench in 2001 when she became the first female solicitor general.
She told the conference it was an "honour and a privilege" to be elected and to serve alongside Mr Brown.
Ms Harman talked about the achievements of the Labour government over 10 years, paid tribute to Mr Blair and her predecessor Mr Prescott, who she said would be a "very difficult act to follow" and thanked her fellow contenders.
She also told the conference the government should acknowledge the anger felt over Iraq, but at the same time support British troops as they tried to protect Iraq's "fragile democracy".
She pledged to be "relentlessly focused" on winning the next general election, by appealing to a broad base of voters, from Middle England to Labour's heartlands.
'Spin' culture
"Labour is and must remain the party of the family. I have always tried to be a champion for women and as deputy leader that is what I will do," she said.
She pledged to put families "at the heart of everything we do in government", to be a voice for the party and to "strive for justice and fairness.
During the deputy leadership campaign she expressed regret at voting for the Iraq war and has called for a United Nations Security Council Resolution against the US government over Guantanamo Bay.
She also campaigned on equal pay for men and women and called for an end to the "culture of spin" - something she reiterated on Sunday.
Earlier Mr Prescott, who has been both deputy leader and deputy prime minister, said his successor should concentrate on revitalising the party - not on holding a Cabinet post.
"I think we took our eye off the ball to a certain extent about the politics of organisation being as important as politics of ideas and policy," he told the BBC.
"Let us get on with the organisation, strengthening the party, bringing back enthusiasm into it, these are essential to win the next election.
It is seen as unlikely that the two roles would be combined again.
Indications are that Commons leader Jack Straw - who has run Mr Brown's leadership campaign - would get some of the responsibilities of the deputy prime minister's job, but there would not be a deputy PM.
While Mr Brown was the sole contender to replace Mr Blair, there was a more crowded field for the position of deputy leader.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, Labour chairwoman Hazel Blears, backbencher Jon Cruddas, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Education Secretary Alan Johnson all took part in the contest.
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WHAT? Where on earth did Harman come from? No-one I knew, on either the left or the right of the party, came out for Harman. The Left backed either Cruddas or Benn, and the Right went for either Johnson or Blears.
Harman's platform was essentially, "Vote for me because I'm a woman." That's basically what it said in the manifesto booklet that came with the ballot papers (I had two - one as an individual member of the Labour Party, the other as a member of UNISON's Affiliated Political Fund. Yes, I could vote twice). There was no hype around her from ordinary party members, let alone trade unionists.
Weird.
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