Emily Thornberry RIDICULED after admitting Labour 'has not picked a side' in Brexit debate
EMILY Thornberry has been mocked after the Labour MP admitted her party still “has not picked a side” in the Brexit debate - almost ten months after the landmark EU referendum.
Emily Thornberry: We’ve accepted the Brexit result
While the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Ukip and the Green Party have all made their Brexit position very clear, Labour has been repeatedly criticised for failing to outline the party’s stance on Britain’s EU exit.
Speaking on Newsnight, Ms Thornberry tried to defend Labour’s unclear Brexit position as the country heads towards a general election that could result in even greater losses for Corbyn’s party.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary said: “We haven’t picked a side - we are a national party and we want to represent the nations.
“The fact that we have people who wanted to remain and wanted to leave is actually a strength.”
She vowed the Labour party “will pull the country together” and negotiate a deal “that works for everybody”, a claim which has been repeatedly made by the Prime Minister.
Ms Thornberry added: “We need to have a Government that understands that the economy is more important than anything else.
“As a country we’re failing, we’re failing internationally but we’re failing nationally in terms of the economy.”
We haven’t picked a side - we are a national party and we want to represent the nation
Despite host Evan Davis’ repeated questions about Labour’s plans for the election, Ms Thornberry failed to offer a clear explanation of her party’s position and instead made suggested Labour’s role would be “to hold the Government to account”, which Mr Davis claimed appeared to show the Labour party do not expect to win in June.
Viewers quickly took to social media to condemn the Labour MP’s Newsnight performance.
One tweeted: “Just listened to Emily Thornberry on Newsnight she has just lost a lot of Labour votes.”
Another wrote: “Surely whatever your politics we can all agree that Emily Thornberry is a terrible ambassador for Labour?!”
The news comes following claims from lifelong Labour voters that they are considering changing their allegiances in order to support Mrs May’s Brexit plans.