Emily Thornberry is back on Labour's front bench - and why it's all very wrong

We all thought we'd seen the last of Emily Thornberry didn't we when the inveterate snob sneered her contempt for the working class all over a poor unassuming White Van Man who'd had the temerity to place an England flag or three outside his home.

It stank to high-Heaven of that peculiar London brand of socialism, that noblesse oblige leftism which is usually accompanied by well-paid jobs in the City/Media/Advertising, holidays in Provence and multiple investment properties.

PR-workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your diversified portfolios.

Anyway, our Em is of course MP for Islington South and her enduring tenure there (Jezza Corbyn is her oppo in north Islington) tells you all you need to know about the schism at the heart of Labour.

For clarity; they're well posh in Islington. Miners, dockers and indeed “toolmakers” are distinctly thin on the ground.

(Do we know anyone who's dad used to be a toolmaker?)

Anyway, some time ago Emily resigned the Labour front bench on a point of high-principle when it was becoming clear her horrible snobbery over White Van Man was damaging the party.

So just to clarify, Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry resigned the Labour front bench on a point of principle.

The front bench.

Where she now sits.

See, political resignations are not like the resignations of us proles.

When we quit that's us pretty much done and dusted, sayonara, don't ring us, shut the door on the way out, etc.

Political resignations are more like those signs you sometimes see in shops saying “back in five minutes”.

But back she is – and more hilariously - back to causing the party major embarrassment.

Emily you see was oddly candid in admitting Labour's class-war promise to impose 20 percent VAT on independent schools would swamp the state sector with ex-private pupils who's mums and dads could no longer afford the fees, which will of course rise by 20 percent.

All 40,000 of them.

Shadow Attorney General Em told GB News (of all places) “some schools that have vacancies [may take ex-private pupils]. My primary schools and my secondary schools have space, and they’re very welcome.

“They are good schools, and people should send their children there. I mean, it’s fine – and if we have to, in the short term, have larger classes, we have larger classes.”

Oooooh they were fuming at Labour HQ and desperately tried to slap down Emily for telling the truth.

In a way I admired her candour, but what irked me was her blithe (and classic Labour) lack of connection with the real world.

When Emily says “my secondary schools have space” I can only assume she is talking about the brilliant state (part) selective Dame Alice Owens in Potters Bar where she sent her kids, rather than some slum school with collapsing ceilings in that part of the country we used to call the Red Wall.

It's a fantastic school.

Which is why I sent my daughter there.

But, it was harder to get my daughter into Dame Alice than it was to get my son into an independent school.

It's basically one tier down from an independent – and rich, north Londoners have fought and jerrymandered and cheated to get their kids through its doors.

I know I did.

Now, I don't know if Emily paid thousands of pounds in extra tuition fees to hothouse her kids through the entrance exam – but do I know I did, and so did all my friends.

And if you ain't got thousands of pounds, you ain't hothousing, and if you ain't hothousing your kid has a substantially lower chance of getting in.

And if that's egalitarian education I'm a banana.

And I don't know if Emily rented out her family home and hired a flat so they could pretend to live in the school's cachement area for a year.

And no, I didn't either … but my friends did.

And right there is the big lie about state schools – getting into the good ones is hugely weighted in favour of those who can afford to pull strings.

And that is no-body's idea of a level playing-field.

Just ask my well-off Labour voting friends, or their very well-educated kids.