Emily thornberry

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Rochester points to a British general election where no one wins

Rochester is not a freak. It has given us a glimpse of what bookies now believe to be the lost likely outcome of the next election: that no one wins. I look at this in my Daily Telegraph column today. ‘All bets are off,’ said Nigel Farage after Mark Reckless prevailed in yesterday’s by-election. But that’s not quite right: bets are being made, and the balance of money points to ‘no overall control’. That is to say: a Prime Minister too unpopular to win a majority, and too toxic to be able to form a coalition. A minority government that can’t call an early election thanks to the Fixed-Term Parliaments

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Thanks to Emily Thornberry’s resignation, the biggest losers from Rochester were Labour

Walk round the Commons today and it is striking that Tory MPs are in relatively good spirits while Labour ones looks distinctly more downcast. At first this seems odd, after all it is the Tories who have just lost another seat to Ukip. But in the battle of the weak that is British politics right now, Labour have had the worst of the past twenty four hours. Obviously, it is Ukip who have the best of it, but the Tories have come off rather less badly than Labour which is what counts for relative success in Westminster at the moment. In the end, the Rochester result wasn’t as bad for

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Miliband reveals he ‘feels respect’ whenever he sees a white van

The fallout from Emily Thornberry’s ‘snobbish’ photo of a flag-furnished house in Rochester looks like it still has plenty of gas. The house’s owner, Dan Ware, has travelled to Thornberry’s Islington house today in search of an apology. Thornberry, who resigned from the shadow cabinet yesterday following a furious conversation with Ed Miliband, has said she is ‘more than happy’ to meet Mr Ware. Nonetheless, a quick glance at some of Thornberry’s ‘favourite’ tweets over the last 24 hours suggests she hasn’t exactly repented of her actions: Miliband seems to be reaching full-blown panic mode, as his damage limitation starts to backfire spectacularly. He’s just stated that he ‘feels respect’ whenever he

Thursday

James Forsyth

Emily Thornberry resigns over Rochester Tweet

Emily Thornberry has resigned from the shadow Cabinet for sending a Tweet that appeared to mock a Rochester voter who was flying several St George’s Cross from their window and had a white van parked outside. Thornberry’s resignation follows Miliband aides briefing that the leader was the angriest they’d ever seen him after being told about the tweet. All this shows just how sensitive Labour is to the charge that it is now a party run by a metropolitan elite who have little connection with the party’s traditional working class base. I suspect that if Miliband had not had the last few weeks that he has, Thornberry would have been

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: was Emily Thornberry right to resign?

Just a few hours ago, Labour’s Emily Thornberry was protesting that she had no idea why anyone would take offence at her Tweeting a picture of a Rochester house with three St George flags and a white van. Now, the tweet has ended her front bench career – she has had to resign as Shadow Attonery General Emily Thornberry. Just why was Ed Milband so sensitive? And what will be the fallout of Ukip taking Rochester? James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and myself discuss this in a podcast special. listen to ‘Podcast special: Emily Thornberry’s resignation’ on audioBoom