Snooty Tweet
The Conservatives may have lost the Rochester and Strood by-election to Ukip, but it seems that Labour has emerged with the biggest bloody nose after the Party's justice chief, Emily Thornberry, was forced to resign following a supposedly 'snooty' tweet.
Since the following article was published in The Times, Emily has been complaining that she did nothing wrong, in which case the obvious question is: why didn't she stand up for herself and explain what she was trying to say with her 'Image from Rochester' caption?
In any event, it's yet another PR disaster for Ed Miliband and Labour, and I the fact that the People's Party had yet another property millionaire in its shadow cabinet won't have escaped the voters.
After the picture was posted online, Ms Thornberry's Labour colleagues berated her for being 'derogatory'
By Fariha Karim, Matt Dathan - The Times
A member of the shadow cabinet was forced to resign last night after posting a “derogatory” tweet showing a house draped in England flags with a white van parked outside.
Emily Thornberry tweeted the picture with the caption “Image from Rochester” early yesterday shortly after polls for the by-election opened.
The shadow attorney-general, who lives in a £3 million house in Islington, north London, was accused by party members, including John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, of being snooty and treating working-class voters “with contempt”.
At first she brushed off criticism by claiming that she was a victim of “mischief-making” and that her critics were showing “a somewhat prejudiced attitude towards Islington”.
Ms Thornberry, 54, who represents Islington South & Finsbury, was given a dressing-down by Ed Miliband, and then apologised. However, the row continued and he spoke to her a second time. A short while later she resigned.
She said in a statement released by the party: “Earlier today I sent a tweet which has caused offence to some people. That was never my intention and I have apologised. However, I will not let anything distract from Labour’s chance to win the coming general election. I have therefore tonight told Ed Miliband I will resign from the shadow cabinet.”
The row is damaging for the Labour party, which faces claims that it is out of touch with its traditional working-class base. The prospect of working-class Labour voters defecting to Ukip has been a particular worry in Rochester & Strood. Mr Miliband was reported to have “never been so angry” as when he gave Ms Thornberry a dressing-down.
Before her resignation, Dan Ware, the man who lives in the house, called her a snob. Speaking at his home in Rochester, he told The Sun: “She shouldn’t have taken it [the photograph] without asking. I’ve not got a clue who she is. She’s a snob. I didn’t even know it was the by-election today.”
Mr Ware, 37, a car trader, said that he had put the flags up “for the World Cup and we will continue to fly them”.
Ms Thornberry, who took on the role of shadow attorney-general in 2011, was derided by the Tories and Ukip for the tweet.
Henry Smith, the Tory MP for Crawley, said it had shown the “mark of a true champagne socialist” while Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said: “What is Labour’s Emily Thornberry trying to imply about Rochester & Strood? I suspect she’s let [Ed] Miliband’s mask slip.”
A spokesman for Mr Miliband said that the party leader had “made his view very clear that people should fly the England flag with pride”.
Explaining why she decided to post the image, Ms Thornberry said: “I’ve never seen anything like it before. My point is that it’s a remarkable image of a house completely covered in flags.”
A Labour source said that Ms Thornberry “thought the right thing to do was to resign. Ed [Miliband] agreed.”
