‘Labour will try to form minority government’ –Thornberry
LABOUR will seek to implement its programme as a minority government if it comes out of the June 8 General Election as the largest party in a hung parliament, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has said.
Ms Thornberry said the party would not seek coalition deals, but would present a Queen’s Speech and Budget – effectively challenging other “progressive” parties to back them or risk a return to Conservative rule.
Her comments amount to a firm rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May’s repeated claim that a vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s party in next week’s election would result in a “coalition of chaos” with Labour propped up by MPs from parties like the Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party or Greens.
A new poll by YouGov for The Times suggested that Labour has cut the Conservatives’ lead to just three points, putting the result into possible hung parliament territory if repeated in a week’s time.
Answering questions following a speech by Mr Corbyn in Basildon, Ms Thornberry was asked whether Labour would be ready to do a coalition deal – or even try to persuade Sinn Fein MPs to attend the House of Commons in order to support them.
She replied: “We are fighting to win with a majority. If we end up in a position where we are in a minority, we will go ahead and we will put forward a Queen’s Speech and a Budget. If people want to vote for it, then good. If they don’t want to vote for it, they are going to have to go back to their constituents and explain why we have a Tory government. If we are the largest party we go ahead – no deals.”
Mr Corbyn was more cautious about spelling out Labour’s plans in the case of an inconclusive election.
“We are fighting to win this election,” he said. “We are not doing deals, we’re not doing coalitions, we’re not doing any agreements.”