Emily Thornberry Quotes

Let's be clear: this was always going to be the Brexit election, the first genuine single-issue election in 119 years. Back then, in 1900, the Tories were cynically capitalising on their early success in the Boer war to try to win another thumping majority over the Liberals. It was also Labour's very first election, and we went into it with noble domestic ambitions far distant from the South African veldt.

Are we going to celebrate a Labour version of Brexit? No. We must have the Labour Party this week saying no to Brexit and we must lead the campaign to remain.

We need to leave the European Union but it is good for our economy - they're our biggest market - that we stay as close as we can

We've got to a stage where we feel that any deal is so controversial and may well be so far from what people voted for when they voted to leave, that we think that it is probably appropriate… that we say to the people, 'Is this what you wanted?' We just want to check. Because if it isn't, then let's stay.

[Labour must] lead the campaign to remain

[A new agreement is needed] that we think is likely to be a customs union that will look pretty much like the current customs union.

We have to negotiate a new agreement. That, we think, is likely to be a customs union that will look pretty much like the current customs union.

I think anybody who has looked into this issue has seen that it is quite clear that there is no other place that we can go than to remain in a customs union with the European Union - nothing else makes sense.

It is quite clear that the government of Venezuela is, on the face of it, responsible for human rights abuses and it does not have a plan to get themselves out of the situation they are currently in.

[Under a Labour government, there would be] no indulgence of human rights abuses because they are committed by less powerful countries, or by countries who call themselves 'socialist' but who, by their actions, betray every socialist ideal.

Frankly, it’s a shame and a disgrace that the Equality and Human Rights Commission have been brought in to look at the Labour party, but they have. And I think we should now welcome it, open our doors up and say to them, right we have been trying to improve our processes, clearly it’s still not working, can you help us?

Yesterday’s motion gave us the opportunity to send the opposite message to the world … that, while Saudi Arabia will remain a valued strategic, security and economic ally in the years to come, our support for their forces in Yemen must be suspended until the alleged violations of international humanitarian law in that conflict have been fully and independently investigated. And until the children of Yemen have received the humanitarian aid that they so desperately need.

The communities who stand to lose out most from Brexit must be looked after first,

Britain has disappeared into the Brexit black hole

And if you're a Labour voter seized with gloom – or a Tory gleaming with complacency – just remember that in 1906, six years after the last single-issue election, the Liberal opposition won a majority of 124, with the Tories losing 246 seats. Why? Because the Tories were totally divided over trade policy and because their "single issue" of the Boer war had turned into a disaster.
Will history repeat itself now as the Tories grapple with the reality of "getting Brexit done"? Well, history has a tendency to do that.