Back in April, the idea of Jeremy Corbyn holding ‘transition talks’ with Sir Jeremy Heywood — the Cabinet Secretary — was enough to provoke mild amusement. But in a sign of how much things have changed with just seven days to go until polling day, Labour’s plans for government are now top of the agenda.
With a YouGov poll today claiming that the Tory lead is down to a mere three points, the pair were asked whether Labour would be ready to do a coalition deal – or even try to persuade Sinn Fein MPs to attend the House of Commons in order to support them. Corbyn declined to answer these questions but Thornberry broke a golden election rule and started to speculate. She said that in a hung Parliament Labour would put forward a budget and dare other parties to vote it down – thereby admitting Labour would have to work with other parties, like the SNP, in order to function:
‘If we end up in a position where we are in a minority, we will go ahead and we will put forward a Queen’s Speech and a Budget. If people want to vote for it, then good. If they don’t want to vote for it, they are going to have to go back and speak to their constituents and explain to them why it is that we have a Tory government instead.’
For weeks, the Conservatives have been trying to make their ‘coalition of chaos’ attack line hit home. Today, Thornberry did it for them.
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