Emily Thornberry

Emily Thornberry is the shadow secretary of state for international trade. Thornberry’s her father was a university professor who later became assistant secretary-general of the United Nations. Thornberry’s parents divorced when she was seven, and she grew up in poverty, relying on free school meals and food parcels. Despite these difficult circumstances, Thornberry earned herself a place at the University of Kent to read Law. 1985 to 2005, Thornberry practised as a barrister specialising in human rights law. She first stood for parliament at the 2001 general election, unsuccessfully contesting Canterbury, but in 2005 she claimed Islington South and Finsbury. In 2006, she introduced the Housing Association Bill, which would have given housing association tenants more control. She also campaigned for a Climate Change Bill and a Marine Bill in partnership with Friends of the Earth and the WWF, for which she was named Environment Champion of the Year in 2006 by ePolitix. In 2009 she became an aide to ministers in the Department for Energy & Climate Change and attended the Copenhagen Summit. Under Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party, Thornberry served as shadow health minister and shadow attorney general but resigned from the latter post after her controversial white van tweet. In March 2015, Thornberry launched a campaign for a new Equal Pay Act, stating that the original 1970 legislation had not served its purpose in closing the gender pay gap. Thornberry supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour leadership election and following his victory was appointed as shadow employment minister. She was promoted to shadow defence secretary in January 2016 and in June became shadow foreign secretary, a role she held until April 2020. Thornberry ran in the Labour leadership election in 2020 but was eliminated before the membership ballot.