Emily Thornberry gets mad at Dermot Murnaghan after he asked her who the French Foreign Minister was
CONTROVERSIAL Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry branded a TV interviewer “sexist” in an on-screen meltdown because she could not name the French Foreign Minister.
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary was unable to name her French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault or South Korea President Park Geun-hye during the a tetchy exchange on Sky News.
She hit out: “It really upsets me that every time I come on here you do another pub quiz with me because you do not do it with anybody else and I do think it’s patronising.”
She added: “Sometimes when it comes to sexism, some Sky presenters need to look at themselves too."
The snobby MP for Islington was sacked by Ed Miliband in 2014 after she sneered at a house flying the England flag.
But she has made a political come back as one of Jeremy Corbyn’s fiercest defenders.
When appearing on Sky New’s Dermot Murnaghan show on Sunday morning, Ms Thornberry reacted angrily after being asked to name the French foreign minister and squealed “stop pub quizzing me”.
After claiming she was “in the process” of arranging to go and speak with her counterpart in Paris, she was asked: “Do you know who he is?”
“Don’t start pub quizzing me Dermot,” she hit back.
Asked again if she knew who he was she replied: “No. And I’m not going to start answering your questions on this.”
Interrupting the presenter she said: “Do you know what Dermot, do you know what really upsets me about your attitude to me, is that you do this with me – I don’t remember you doing it with anybody else you know.
“Have you done it with David Davis, have you asked these questions, do Sky journalists have a go at Boris Johnson on this basis, how about Liam Fox, do you do pub quizzes with them?
“I mean honestly, really – can we talk about some serious stuff? How about talking about Syria, how about talking about North Korea?
“You really want to spend this time pub quizzing me?”
Mr Murnaghan agreed, saying he was happy to switch topics to North Korea, adding: “Well how about the South Korean president then, do you know the name?”
After avoiding the question twice she added: “I’m not getting into this nonsense.”
Later on in the interview after being asked about issues of anti-Semitism and sexism in the Labour party, she replied: “There is always more to be done, and do you know what there is a lot more to be done by the Tories and I certainly think that sometimes when it comes to sexism, some Sky presenters need to look at themselves too.”
After Mr Murnaghan looked back at her in stunned silence she continued, saying: “I really do. It really upsets me that every time I come on here you do another pub quiz with me, and you do not do it with anyone else, and I do think that its patronising.
The presenter replied: “It’s not, because you are the shadow foreign secretary and this was about the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who Boris Johnson has met now several times.”
She angrily interrupted, saying: “Let’s take this offline, because I have a lot more to say to you and I don’t think a lot of it ought to be broadcast.
The presenter said he was “more than keen to have that discussion on-air if you like”.
Last night Ms Thornberry’s outburst was blasted by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson who said there was “plenty of genuine sexism and misogyny in politics”.
She tweeted: “Don’t need prominent women debasing the term to cover their own poor performance. Jeez.”
