The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry discusses Brexit, the state of the Labour Party and her own career, one that has spanned some dramatic highs and lows. She is now close to the top of the Labour Party, a formidable parliamentary performer, and is seen as a possible successor to Jeremy Corbyn.

Emily Thornberry is the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Shadow First Secretary of State. As well as representing the Labour Party on Foreign Affairs, Emily also deputises for Jeremy Corbyn during PMQ’s in her role as Shadow First Secretary of State. After working as a barrister for 20 years, Emily was first elected to parliament in 2005 and was re-elected in 2010, 2015 and 2017 – increasing her majority each time to the 20,263 it stands at now. Emily has held a number of front bench roles, shadowing the Departments of Health, Energy & Climate Change and Work & Pensions as a Shadow Minister.

Prior to becoming President of Lucy Cavendish College in September 2015, Jackie Ashley worked for more than 30 years at Westminster as a prominent political journalist and broadcaster. She has had a rich and varied working life, including such roles as Producer and Newsreader on Newsnight, Political Correspondent with ITN, Channel 4 politics producer, Presenter of several political programmes on BBC2  and ITV and Political Editor at the New Statesman. In her previous role – as a Columnist and Political Interviewer at The Guardian – Jackie has covered Labour, Conservative and Coalition politics, women’s rights, the media and public services, with a particular focus on health. She has also closely followed the weekly political argument as the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster.