Emily Thornberry will pitch herself as the woman who can stand up and lead the “fightback” against Boris Johnson, as she launches her Labour leadership bid.
The shadow foreign secretary will say the opposition needs someone tough, resilient, experienced and battle-hardened to lead the fight against the Tories.
She will warn that Labour faces “a long, tough road back to power” after the party suffered its worst general election defeat since 1935.
Launching her campaign on Friday afternoon in Guildford, near the council estate where she grew up, Ms Thornberry will say: “In my 42 years as a member of the Labour Party, there is no fight or campaign our movement has waged where I have not been on the frontline.
“And since coming to Parliament 15 years ago, I’ve also been on the frontline in the fights against climate change, Universal Credit, and anti-abortion laws in Northern Ireland.
“I’ve led the charge as shadow foreign secretary against Donald Trump and the war in Yemen. And in the two years I shadowed Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, I showed him up every time for the lying, reckless charlatan that he is.”
And she will say: “I’m standing to lead our party because I want to be the woman, and I know I can be the woman, who stands up and leads the fightback against Boris Johnson.
“And we’re going to need someone tough, someone resilient, someone experienced and battle-hardened to lead that fight.
“Because we all know this is going to be a long, tough road back to power after the painful and crushing defeat we suffered last month.
“But we must hold on to our hope, and ask ourselves who is best placed to deliver the dream of turning this great mass movement into a great party of government that will change our country, and through our leadership, change the world?
“And as we debate that decision over the coming weeks, we must not make the mistake of defining it as a choice between who will take us to the left, or to the centre or to the right, because the only issue that really matters now is who will take us forward.”
She will also announce her campaign team, which will include former MPs Helen Goodman and Danielle Rowley.
Ms Thornberry narrowly secured enough support from MPs on Monday to allow her to enter the second stage of the Labour leadership race.
She was nominated by 23 MPs – just above the threshold of 22 – to make it through, but faces stiff competition from her rivals Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel