Emily Thornberry brought the house down today in PMQs when she faced up against Damian Green in the absence of Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May.
The Labour Deputy landed the first blows after Green spun her questions on Brexit to call for constructive inputs from her party’s bench.
Thornberry reminded him, as Corbyn reminded May earlier this week, that they are the ones who are supposed to provide the answers.
She said: “I know that the Right Honourable Gentleman is new to this, but the way the rules work is that I ask the questions and he answers them”.
.@EmilyThornberry “I ask the questions and he answers them – I am quite happy to swap places with them” pic.twitter.com/8SSF5mE371
— The Baptist (@Admitonesin) July 12, 2017
She also pointed out what a mess the government has got itself into by threatening to walk away even before talks began.
Taking individual jabs at the Foreign Secretary, Brexit Secretary and Prime Minister she effectively demolished the entire Conservative front bench in one fell swoop.
Emily Thornberry: “What a mess the govt has got itself into!” “We’ve got 20 months to go before Brexit” #cabinetofchaos #pmq #marr #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/vfA2xmCdvg
— WeThePeople (@gaurangmorjaria) July 12, 2017
But she gained a rapturous reception after prying about a plan for a “no deal”.
She said: “The Brexit Secretary may be laughing, but I’m turning to him next.
“(He) was so busy fighting with himself that on March 12th he said that there was a plan, on March 17th he said that there wasn’t. “On May 19th he said he spent half his time thinking about it, and yesterday he said that he wasn’t prepared to comment.
“So, can the First Secretary clear up the confusion today?”