Labour shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry accused Times political editor Francis Elliott of asking a “stupid question” at a press conference yesterday.
Elliott said: “How far are you prepared to go to keep Theresa May out of Number 10? Would it extend to, for instance, asking Sinn Fein members to take their seats…”
At this point loud jeers and boos erupted prompting Thornberry to restore order saying: “Alright, alright, everybody no, no, no, come on…we all agree we should have a free press, they should be allowed to ask questions, no matter how stupid [cheers and applause] and shouldn’t be booed, sorry Francis…”
She then went on to give the most clarification yet on what Labour’s position would be in the case of a hung Parliament (suggesting that the question was not quite as stupid as she suggested): “If we end up in a position where we are in a minority, we will go ahead and put forward a Queen’s Speech and a budget.
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“If people want to vote for it, then good. If they don’t want to vote for it, they are going to have to go back and speak to their constituents and explain to them why it is that we have a Tory government instead. If we are the largest party we go ahead — no deals — with our manifesto, our budget and our Queen’s Speech.”
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