Emily Thornberry

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Emily Thornberry MP
Emily Thornberry
Member of Parliament
for Islington South and Finsbury
Incumbent
Assumed office 
5 May 2005
Preceded by Chris Smith
Born 27 July 1960 (1960-07-27) (age 47)
north Surrey
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Alma mater University of Kent

Emily Anne Thornberry (born 27 July 1960, north Surrey) is a British Labour Party politician. She has been Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005.

Contents

[edit] Early life

She was raised by a single mother on a council estate.

Thornberry was educated at the University of Kent at Canterbury where she studied Law, and practised as a barrister specialising in human rights from 1985 to 2005 in Tooks Chambers, run by Michael Mansfield.[1]

[edit] Parliamentary career

In the 2001 general election she stood for Parliament in Canterbury where she claimed she was a local candidate, and at the 2005 general election was elected as Member of Parliament for Islington South & Finsbury, with one of the largest swings against Labour in the country and seeing the party's majority reduced to 484.[citation needed]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Housing

During the course of a campaign run by Ms Thornberry on the subject of social housing, the Islington Tribune, a local newspaper, discovered her husband had bought ex-social housing stock[2]. This property is now rented out to Ms Thornberry's staff, which has led to accusations of hypocrisy from her local opposition.

[edit] Electoral Commission

The Parliament's standards watchdog has said Thornberry was "unwise" to insert a quote from herself into an Electoral Commission press release. Sir Philip Mawer revealed in his annual report [3] Thornberry e-mailed the doctored press release on to the media as if it were an official release.

The case arose after she inserted a quote into an Electoral Commission press release; the Commission was urging voters to register to vote. Emily Thornberry added a quote about Islington, confusing the borough's registration form response rate of 65% with its voter registration level of 90%. The implication was that Islington was not bothering to register voters. As the Select Committee [4] heard last year, "the Electoral Commission does not think it acceptable that Ms Thornberry changed its press release without its permission. It believes that the quote inserted by Ms Thornberry was both politically contentious and misleading."

The facts of the matter were not disputed. The Commissioner accepted that Ms Thornberry's primary motive was to act in the public interest by supporting the Electoral Commission’s campaign to improve response rates, and consequently levels of voter registration. However he described her actions in amending and distributing the news release in a form which appeared to be an Electoral Commission document, as unwise and potentially misleading, and said they were not to be condoned. Nevertheless, as she had not intended to deceive or manipulate the public, the Commissioner found that Thornberry had not breached the breached the Parliamentary Code of Conduct. The House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges agreed with the Commissioner's findings.[5] [6] [7]

[edit] Communications Workers Union

Thornberry was also criticised for receiving funding from the Communications Workers Union at the time of the unpopular postal strike in October 2007. Recent political propaganda sent out by Thornberry bore the mark of the franking machine of the Communications Workers Union in London SW19, miles from her Constituency.[citation needed] At that time she also asked a question in Parliament to the Prime Minister urging him to "enter into meaningful discussions with the Communication Workers Union and thus ensure that the jobs and the good pay and conditions of Royal Mail employees... are protected" [8], leading the newspaper Private Eye to accuse her of taking "cash for questions" [9].

[edit] Letter to George W. Bush

According to the Islington Gazette Thornberry wrote a letter to United States President George W. Bush, demanding the release of Guantanamo captive Ahmed Rashidi, a former resident of her constituency.[10] The article quotes Thornberry:

"Guantanamo Bay is an affront to international law. While Ahmed Errachidi has been in Guantanamo he has been subject to appalling abuse and has suffered at least one severe mental breakdown. He should never have been in Guantanamo Bay and he certainly shouldn't be there for a moment longer.
"It's completely unacceptable that Ahmed should be left in limbo like this, while the international community wrings its hands about the detainees the US no longer wants.

[edit] Islington Mugging Statistics

In March 2008, Thornberry claimed that almost every child in Islington had been mugged at some stage [11]. This was denied by the Metropolitan Police as 'speculation', pointing out that out of a borough population of 180,000, only 750 people under 18 had reported being the victims of mugging in 2007[12].

The media reaction to this statement led the MP to fear for her political career, and to insist to the local press that she had her party's support[13].

[edit] Choice of school

She was criticised in 2005 for sending her eldest child out of her local LEA to a school in Potters Bar, the (state) Dame Alice Owen's School. The school selects 25% of its intake, and has the third best GCSE results in Hertfordshire (one of the best performing LEAs in England). She chose the school because the local (comprehensive) schools were not as high a standard, as the local LEA is one of the worst performing in England. The school had previously been based in Islington until the 1970s, and twenty places a year are reserved for children from Islington borough.

[edit] Personal life

She has lived in Islington since the early 1990s. She has two sons (born December 1991 and July 1999) and a daughter (born November 1993). She married Christopher Nugee QC in July 1991 in the borough of Tower Hamlets. He is a High Court judge, and they live in Barnsbury.

By coincidence she has lived on Richmond Crescent, where Tony Blair lived until the 1997 general election, since 1993, moving in on the same day that the Blairs moved in.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Emily Thornberry elected as MP. Tooks Chambers (May 12, 2005). Retrieved on April 18, 2007.
  2. ^ Islington Tribune, 31 August 2007
  3. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmcomstan/1012/1012.pdf
  4. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmstnprv/1367/1367.pdf
  5. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmcomstan/1012/1012.pdf
  6. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmstnprv/1367/1367.pdf
  7. ^ BBC NEWS | Politics | MP 'unwise' to alter news release
  8. ^ [1]Hansard, Wednesday, 25 July 2007
  9. ^ Private Eye Magazine, October 24 2007
  10. ^ nlnews@archant.co.uk. "'Innocent' Guantanamo prisoner could be freed", Islington Gazette, Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Retrieved on April 18. 
  11. ^ Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2008
  12. ^ BBC News, 4 March 2008
  13. ^ Islington Tribune, 7 March 2008
  14. ^ Islington Tribune, 5th September 2005, p. 3.

[edit] External links

[edit] Audio clips

[edit] News items

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Chris Smith		 Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury
2005 – present		 Incumbent