Fallon spiked by Thornberry over Assad

Nuttall: I will not quit

TORY attack dog Sir Michael Fallon was roasted on The Andrew Marr Show sofa yesterday in the biggest political ambush of the General Election so far.

The Defence Secretary was humiliated on live TV by Labour’s Emily Thornberry as he tried in vain to attack Jeremy Corbyn for talking to the IRA.

Right-winger Fallon is wheeled out by the Tories on a daily basis to attack the Labour leader over his attempts to hold peace talks with the Irish terror group in the 1980s.

But the hypocritical Tory was left gasping for answers as Thornberry revealed how he once travelled to Syria to celebrate with Bashar al-Assad, after the dictator won re-election in a rigged ballot.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary turned to Fallon as he was putting the boot in to Corbyn and said: “If you judge people by who it is that you spend time with, the question is – do you know where you were on the May 27, 2007?

“You were in Syria and you were celebrating at a reception for the re-election of Assad with 99 per cent of the vote.”

As the Tory Cabinet Minister floundered for answers, she went on: “I’m not going to judge you on you going to a reception with Assad – and I don’t think people should judge Jeremy on trying to talk to people who might be open to a settlement in Northern Ireland.”

Panicking, Fallon tried to claim this was entirely different to Corbyn’s attempts to broker peace.

He said: “I was on all-party visit to Syria, back in 2007. I did meet Assad. I didn’t celebrate his re-election. It was 10 years ago – we had a different relationship with Assad.” Scotland is independent our position always has been, as long as I’ve been in the SNP and continues to be, that we want Scotland to be a full member of the EU.

“Now we have to set out, if we’re in an independence referendum – and we’re not in that right now – the process for regaining or retaining, depending on where we are in the Brexit process, EU membership.

“It may be that we have a phased approach to that by necessity.”

Sturgeon’s opponents said the SNP are all over the place on the EU.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “People can see through Nicola Sturgeon’s contortions on Europe, which is why a majority don’t want another divisive referendum.” HAPLESS UKIP leader Paul Nuttall says he will stay on as Ukip leader even if he fails to win a seat in the General Election for the second time.

The bungling leader said he will give it his “best shot” but will remain in post in the event of defeat.

Nuttall, who has already failed once to become an MP this year, is contesting the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire.

Saying he wouldn’t step down if he lost, he added: “I will be here to see through the restructure and the changing of the party.”