Emily Thornberry enters contest to replace Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
The Islington South and Finsbury MP reveals her plans and criticises her party's decision to support last week's general election.
Thursday 19 December 2019 10:30, UK
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has confirmed she will enter the contest to replace Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Islington South and Finsbury MP revealed her plans in an article for The Guardian, in which she criticised her party's decision to support last Thursday's general election.
Labour suffered its worst election performance since 1935, shedding 59 seats from its 2017 result, forcing Mr Corbyn to announce his departure as Labour leader in the New Year.
Ms Thornberry claimed, prior to the vote, she had warned Mr Corbyn that agreeing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's call to go to the polls was "an act of catastrophic political folly".
She wrote: "We wilfully went into a single-issue election with no clear position on that issue and, as every pollster predicted, we were brutally squeezed by all the other parties with an unequivocal policy on Brexit, all of them sharing a clear strategy to eat into Labour's base.
"All over the country, we could see ourselves going backwards, despite the incredible hard work of our brilliant volunteers, councillors and candidates.
"They saw this result coming a mile off, and were amazed that the people running the campaign could not."
Ms Thornberry, who has served as an MP since 2005 and held a number of positions on Labour's front bench, said she disagreed with "much" of New Labour's policies.
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But she praised her party's "deep political insight and absolute clarity of purpose" following the creation of the New Labour project under Tony Blair in 1994.
The former barrister added she had "pummelled" Mr Johnson each week as his shadow, when he was foreign secretary, by focusing "relentlessly" on policy differences.
She added: "When the Labour leadership contest begins, whoever is standing - and I hope to be one of the candidates - the first question shouldn't be about their position on Brexit, or where they live in our country.
"The first question should instead be: what's your plan for taking on Johnson over the next five years?
"And do you have the political nous and strategic vision to reunite our party, rebuild our machine, gain the trust of the public, give hope to our declining towns and smaller cities, and never again waste the opportunity to take back power?"
Ms Thornberry confirmed her leadership ambitions after Mr Blair had earlier warned Labour is "marooned on fantasy island" and faces the "stark" prospect of being replaced as a competitor for power in British politics.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper and Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips are also considering Labour leadership bids, while shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey is also expected to stand.