In February, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry was eliminated from the Labour leadership race after failing to secure enough nominations. Ms Thornberry had 31 nominations from local constituency parties – two short of the 33 needed. She did not get any nominations from Labour Party affiliates, either, leaving Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy in the running to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
Ms Thornberry wrote in a tweet that it was a “shame to miss out on the rest of the race, but good luck to the three superb remaining candidates”.
She wrote: “I’ll have a week of rest now, then it’s back to the day job of holding this wretched Tory government to account on its foreign policy, and doing so with the same passion, tenacity and forensic skill I’ve shown for four years in that role.”
As the Labour leadership race enters its last few days, with the new leader due to be announced on Saturday, unearthed reports reveal how Ms Thornberry made an embarrassing gaffe at a hustings organised by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) during the 2017 general election campaign.
When asked about the UK’s future trade with major Commonwealth countries post-Brexit, Ms Thornberry said: “Things like our food industry, you can’t export it to Australia because it will go off.”
She appeared to be unaware that, according to the Food and Drink Federation, Britain exported £337.7million worth of food and drink to Australia in 2016, up 12.4 percent on the previous year.
Focusing further on the food industry, Ms Thornberry also claimed that British food would go off if Britain leaves the EU customs union.
She said: “It needs to be able to move smoothly across Europe without there being points of origin checks.
“Without us having Dover as a massive great lorry park whilst everything is checked through and so forth.
“So I am very concerned.
“I’m very concerned about the practical effects of us leaving the single market but also about us leaving the customs union.”
Ms Thornberry, asked to clarify her remarks about the difficulties of trading with Australia, said after the hustings: “You could hardly sell breaded chicken breasts, you know.”
When the interviewer told her about New Zealand lamb being sold in the UK, Ms Thornberry said: “I appreciate that.
“But that’s why I mean processed food, which is that much more complicated and you get ingredients from all over.”
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Hitting out at the Shadow Foreign Secretary after the gaffe, Conservative MP and former chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee Neil Paris said: “Yet again, Emily Thornberry is completely out of touch with reality.
“Australia is already our 12th biggest export market for food and drink and demand is growing fast – because our great British food makes it Down Under in perfect condition.
“These comments would be funny but it is no laughing matter that Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry could be negotiating Brexit just 11 days after polling day.
“If they don’t think we can export food around the world, they would make an absolute meal of the Brexit negotiations – and we would all pay the price.”
postbrexitcompliance.com 