Labour shadow minister resigns after ridiculing England fan

Labour's Emily Thornberry has resigned from the Labour front bench over a tweet she sent during the Rochester and Strood by-election campaign.



The shadow attorney general previously apologised for the tweet, which showed a terraced house with three England flags, and a white van parked outside.

Alongside the picture, she wrote: "Image from Rochester".

She said she had not meant to cause offence, but Labour backbencher John Mann accused her of "snobbery".

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said the problem was that the tweet suggested Ms Thornberry, the MP for Islington South and Finsbury, thought the house and flags were "something to be sneered at".

He added: "It is not the sort of news that you need to have on a polling day, in a by-election, when you're trying to fight back against some pretty tough press."

Ms Thornberry is believed to have had two conversations with Labour leader Ed Miliband since posting the tweet.

A Labour source said in the second conversation she said she thought the right thing to do was to resign and Mr Miliband agreed.

Stupid woman! If that one had brains, she'd be dangerous.

How the heck did she think she'd get away with such things in this day and age? - She didn't think, and there lies the problem.

Note to Ms Thornberry, engage brain before speaking or acting!