After winning the 2020 leadership battle, the MP for Islington South and Finsbury served as Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow attorney general for almost eighteen months. Prior to that, he was his shadow international trade secretary.
However, the prime minister has named human rights advocate Richard Hermer KC as attorney general, who must be placed in the House of Lords to serve as a non-MP, rather than promoting him into the government role like most shadow ministers have.
“Very sorry and surprised” by the decision, Ms. Thornberry, who herself ran for the leadership in 2020, posted a comment on X. However, she emphasized that her “personal disappointment” would not “detract from the amazing and historic victory” of Labour at the general election last week.
“I have always worked my hardest to keep the Labour Party united, support our candidates across the country, take the fight to the Tories, and put a positive case to the British people about what we would do differently,” the writer wrote, reflecting on her eight and a half continuous years in the shadow cabinet—a longer record of service than anyone else in that time.
