Emily Thornberry has caused a stir with her take on the claim that the Covid rules “were too difficult” for the government to follow themselves – leading to ‘partygate’.
A series of parties throughout 2020 – when the UK was under various lockdown rules – have been revealed in the press over the last two months.
A report from The Telegraph then claimed on Thursday that Downing Street held another two parties on the evening of Prince Philip’s funeral, when indoor mixing between households was banned.
As calls for the prime minister to resign are growing, the government’s attempts to respond to the backlash are only causing further fury.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Friday, host Ben Shephard asked Labour’s Emily Thornberry: “When you hear one of the prime minister’s allies Jacob Rees Mogg standing up in the Commons and saying that perhaps the rules were too complicated, it was too difficult to follow them – what did you make of that?
“These were rules that were put into place by Boris Johnson and his team.”
“Exactly. Exactly,” the shadow attorney general replied.
“They seem to understand the rules enough to pass them, but they didn’t understand them enough to be able to abide them.
″I mean really, it’s pathetic isn’t it?”
The Labour MP then echoed this sentiment during an interview with BBC News shortly afterwards.
She said: “The prime minister, who in the end takes ultimate responsibility, has not taken ultimate responsibility.
“The apology, so-called, that he made to parliament the one where he said, ‘mistakes had been made’, for which he takes responsibility.
“He didn’t say he had done anything wrong. Indeed, he isn’t even able to accept that he went to a party.
“Remember, that this investigation done by Sue Gray was set up by the prime minister when he appeared before Parliament six weeks ago, in which he said, ‘I have been assured that no rules have been broken and there wasn’t a party.’
“He lied to us! He continues to lie to us.
“At that stage, he was implying there was only one party.
“We now know there were many many parties held at No.10 which in the end in the headquarters of the government, it is his home, he is responsible for this.
“He shows no true understanding of just how angry people feel.”
She concluded that Johnson “should resign now”, as he “does not need Sue Gray to tell him what happened” at these parties.
Thornberry speculated: “The reason he’s asking Sue Gray is that he wants to know how much he can get away with.”
Thornberry’s media appearances this morning have since been dubbed the “Meryl Streep of political TV appearances” by a Twitter account and the clip has been widely praised.
Thornberry has form for delivering brutal summaries about the Conservative government.
Back in 2017, an interview with the Labour MP conducted by commentator Owen Jones went viral, when he asked Thornberry: “Do you feel sorry for Theresa May?”
She replied: “Sometimes I do.
“Well I just look at her and think, ‘she looks dreadful’.”