Carolyn Harris epitomises the lack of respect Labour has for our sacred traditions - Carole Malone

So why in God’s did Harris think it appropriate to turn up for PMQ’s wearing a scruffy old T shirt, a leather biker jacket and sporting virulent purple hair?

As my old Mum would have said: “What DOES she think she looks like? ” – a pertinent question and one which the nation vociferously answered this week with howls of online outrage.

“WTF is MP Caroline Harris wearing?” asked one.

Well, we could all see what she was wearing, most of us were just wondering why?

I was actually offended when I saw her. There she was in the hallowed halls of the Palace of Westminster, in one of the world’s most respected Parliaments and she turns up looking she’s ready for a day on the allotment.

How can anyone in the chamber, in the country even, take anything she says seriously?

And where’s her respect for the House or for her colleagues?

I’ve seen photos of Harris in the not too distant past and her clothes back then looked perfectly normal, the height of respectable.

And how dare she disrespect Parliament, her colleagues and her constituents by dressing this way.

Because parliament’s guidance on dress is clear: “It should demonstrate respect for the house and its central position in the life of the nation.”

Yes, it should and Harris’ get-up here shows zero respect for herself or the nation let alone her colleagues in Parliament.

The woman gets paid £91,346 a year for being an MP surely she can afford to dress better than this? In fact far from showing respect for Parliament she looks like she’s showing wilful disdain for it.

Her reaction to the outrage isn’t just predictable – it’s a coward’s cop out which falls back on old stereotypes: “ There wouldn’t be a problem if I was a man,” she says. “ No-one would take any notice.”

The Hell they wouldn’t. If a male MP turned up in the House of Commons looking like this – in a scruffy T shirt, leather jacket - there’d be uproar.

But the thing is no man ever has. Nor has any woman.

“Women have to deal with comments like this all too often,” says Harris. Not in the Commons they don’t because no woman has ever turned up looking like Harris.

Being an MP is a serious job which should demand respect. And if they want to be taken seriously in a serious job they shouldn’t turn up for work in a biker jacket and t-shirt.

And the message Harris is sending here is “I don’t give a stuff. I don’t care about your traditions or your parliament.”

I can hear some people saying now – the woman lost her son eight years ago give her a break. And I’m truly sorry for that. I don’t know how anyone gets over the loss of a child. But Harris cannot be exempt from criticism because of the very public position she holds and the job she does.

All MP’s both male and female must respect the rules and traditions of the Mother of all Parliaments and they can do that in a myriad of ways – one of which is to dress the way the rules of the House say they should.

And if they don’t want to do that – well maybe they shouldn’t be there.