Harriet Ruth Harman was born at 108 Harley Street in London and privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School. She is a daughter of John Bishop Harman, a Harley Street doctor, and his wife Anna , a barrister, who gave up practising when she had children and who was the Liberal Party candidate for Hertford in the 1964 general election. They both had non-conformist backgrounds – Harman's paternal grandfather Nathaniel Bishop Harman, an ophthalmic surgeon, was a prominent Unitarian and the Spicer family were well known Congregationalists. Her paternal aunt was Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford (née Harman), the wife of former Labour minister Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and her cousins include the writers Lady Antonia Fraser (née Pakenham, a first cousin), Rachel Billington, and Thomas Pakenham. Harman is a great-great niece of the Liberal statesman Joseph Chamberlain and is a cousin once removed of former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and former Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain. She is also related to Liberal politician Richard Chamberlain, MP.