Backbench MP Emily Thornberry has been chatting to Iain Dale on the latest For The Many podcast. Dale offered his commiserations over the job snub: “There were a couple of spaces being made and, OK, Starmer wanted a different person as Attorney General fair enough but the fact that he didn’t give you one of those other positions, I thought it was terrible.” Emily had another opportunity to say how upset she was…
Ever the optimist, Thornberry gave a concise pitch for herself:
“I’d been the longest serving Shadow Cabinet member you know I did eight and a half years continually and then I had done a couple of years before that… I would really like to have a chance to do something. I mean, I can do talking, I can do holding people to account, I can do that and I’ll do it well. But I would like to do something.“
Believe it or not, she’s not even fussed about the position:
“I didn’t mind not being Attorney General… but I would like to have done something else… I’d like to have the experience of being a minister. I mean actually I’ve been in Parliament for nearly 20 years and I haven’t. So I was a bag carrier in the last government for Ed Miliband but I was never actually a minister.“
Thornberry rounded off with an innocent observation: “I certainly really enjoyed being Shadow Foreign Secretary.” Guido is convinced by the pitch and would like to declare his support for E.T. The time has come for Lammy to do the decent thing and step aside…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”