At the
2001 general election, Thornberry stood as the Labour candidate in
Canterbury, coming second with 36.9% of the vote behind the incumbent
Conservative MP
Julian Brazier.
1st term (2005–2010) Thornberry was selected as the Labour candidate for
Islington South and Finsbury for the
2005 general election through an
all-women shortlist of prospective candidates. She was elected to Parliament as MP for Islington South and Finsbury 39.9% of the vote and a majority of 484. Thornberry made her
maiden speech in the
House of Commons on 24 May 2005. In Parliament, she has been a member of the Environmental Audit Committee and was on the
Communities and Local Government Select Committee during the 2005–10 Parliament. In 2006, Thornberry was criticised by the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Philip Mawer for adding a quote from herself into a news release by the
Electoral Commission. He found that she had not broken the Parliamentary code of conduct, but that her actions had been "unwise and unfortunate". Thornberry's main interests since becoming an MP have been in health, housing, the environment and equality. She has also spoken on the need for more affordable housing, particularly in
Islington. In 2006, Thornberry introduced the Housing Association Bill, a
private member's bill which sought to improve the control of housing association tenants over their landlords, with many of the ideas from this bill were taken up by the Cave Review. On environmental matters, Thornberry worked with
Friends of the Earth and
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to campaign for a Climate Change Bill and a Marine Bill. In 2006, Thornberry won the ePolitix Award for Environment Champion of the Year after being nominated by WWF. In May 2008, Thornberry supported a change in the law to allow single women and lesbian couples to seek
in vitro fertilisation treatment. In 2009, she was appointed as a ministerial aide in the
Department of Energy and Climate Change and attended the
Copenhagen Summit in December that year with
Joan Ruddock and
Ed Miliband.
2nd term (2010–2015) At the
2010 general election, Thornberry was re-elected as MP for Islington South and Finsbury with an increased vote share of 42.3% and an increased majority of 3,569. Thornberry was promoted to Shadow Minister for the Department of Energy and Climate Change soon after the general election. She missed out on a place in Labour's
shadow cabinet, then elected by Labour MPs, by one vote. She was instead promoted to the role of shadow care minister under the shadow health secretary
John Healey. In April 2011, Thornberry surveyed all the local government directors of adult social care and highlighted the pressures on care for the elderly by the coalition government's cuts to local authority funds. In June 2011 Thornberry criticised the coalition government's lack of action over failing care home operator Southern Cross, calling for action and that the government put in place a plan B should the operator fail. She criticised the government over the
Winterbourne View care home abuse scandal, calling for an investigation into the affair. In July 2011, Thornberry challenged prime minister
David Cameron over his false claims about wages at
Islington Council, campaigning against government measures which she said had exacerbated child poverty in Islington, and answering over 1,000 enquiries a month from constituents. Thornberry was appointed
shadow attorney general in October 2011, which allowed her to attend shadow cabinet meetings. She called for action by
Dominic Grieve over
Applied Language Solutions' failure to provide interpreters for court proceedings. Thornberry resigned her shadow cabinet position on 20 November 2014, shortly after polls closed in the
Rochester and Strood by-election. Earlier in the day, she had received criticism after
tweeting a photograph as voting was taking place of a house in the constituency adorned with three flags of
St. George, the smaller of which incorporated the colours of
West Ham United F.C. and showed the owner's
white van parked outside on the driveway, under the caption "Image from #Rochester", provoking accusations of
snobbery. She was criticised by fellow Labour Party MPs, including leader
Ed Miliband, who said her tweet conveyed a "sense of disrespect",
Chris Bryant, who said that it broke the "first rule of politics" and
Simon Danczuk, who said that the party had been "hijacked by the north London
liberal elite". Prime Minister
David Cameron said the tweet was "completely appalling", implying that she was "sneering at people who work hard, are patriotic and love their country", and
BBC political editor
Nick Robinson said the tweet was "the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound I have seen an opposition party inflict on themselves in many, many years." Thornberry was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the
Labour leadership election of 2015, though she later stated that she would be supporting
Yvette Cooper. In September 2015, she was appointed as the shadow employment by the new Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn. Thornberry advocated spending money on the army rather than on the UK's
Trident nuclear programme. During her role as shadow defence secretary, Thornberry conducted a review of defence policy, including the role of the nuclear deterrent, which was delayed following the
2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. During a private Labour discussion about the nuclear deterrent, Thornberry asked what "
DEFCON One", a status of the United States nuclear defence rating, meant. Thornberry was promoted to
Shadow Foreign Secretary in June 2016 after Corbyn fired
Hilary Benn. She held the role of
Shadow Brexit Secretary concurrently until
Keir Starmer took on the role later that year. She accused Sky News presenter
Dermot Murnaghan of sexism after he asked her to name the
French Foreign Minister (
Jean-Marc Ayrault) and the president of South Korea, which she was unable to do. In October 2016, Thornberry stated that she opposed Britain's involvement in the
Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen against the
Shia Houthis. She said that "while Saudi Arabia will remain a valued
strategic, security and economic ally in the years to come, our support for their forces in Yemen must be suspended until the alleged violations of international humanitarian law in that conflict have been fully and independently investigated".
4th term (2017–2019) At the snap
2017 general election, Thornberry was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 62.8% and an increased majority of 20,263. Following the election, she was given the additional role of
Shadow First Secretary of State, effectively acting as Corbyn's number 2. In May 2018 Thornberry said support in
Syria for the country's president,
Bashar al-Assad, had been "underestimated" in the West. In October 2018 Thornberry criticised
Theresa May's government's response to
Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance as "too little, too late". She said: "Imagine how this government would have reacted if either Russia or Iran had abducted—and in all likelihood murdered—one of their dissident journalists within the sovereign territory of another country".
5th term (2019–2024) At the
2019 general election, Thornberry was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 56.3% and a decreased majority of 17,328. hustings After Corbyn announced he was stepping down as leader, Thornberry was the first to announce that she would be standing for the position of leader of the Labour Party. Defeated Labour MP
Caroline Flint appeared on
Sophy Ridge on Sunday and accused Thornberry of saying that Brexit voters in
Northern England were 'stupid'. Thornberry appeared on
ITV News and accused Flint of 'making up shit about her' and threatened to take
legal action. She was eventually eliminated from the leadership election after failing to achieve enough nominations from constituency parties or affiliated groups. Following the killing of
Qasem Soleimani in the
2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, Thornberry condemned the actions of the
United States government. She said that she shed no tears over the death, but was fearful of escalating tensions in the region. Thornberry was replaced as
Shadow Foreign Secretary by
Lisa Nandy upon the
election of
Keir Starmer as
Leader of the Labour Party. Thornberry herself was not sacked from the
Official Opposition frontbench, but instead moved to a different frontbench role, becoming the new
Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade. She replaced
Barry Gardiner, and said on
Twitter that, "It's been a pleasure to work with Barry Gardiner these past four years ... I hope I can take the fight to the government on
International Trade as effectively as he did, and I'll be very lucky to have his advice". In late December 2020, Thornberry voted for the
European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020, in line with the
Labour Chief Whip. In the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Thornberry was appointed
Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales. Thornberry was re-selected as the Labour candidate for Islington South and Finsbury at the
2024 general election in February 2022. In the aftermath of
Hamas'
October 7 attacks against Israel, Thornberry responded "I think Israel has an absolute right to defend itself against terrorism," when queried over Israel's decision to cut off the
Gaza Strip from water, electricity, and food.
6th term (2024–) At the
2024 general election, Thornberry was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 53.7% and a decreased majority of 15,455. With the formation of the
Starmer ministry, Thornberry was not appointed a minister and returned to the backbenches. Thornberry was not appointed
Attorney General for England and Wales as expected as she had held the position of
Shadow Attorney General for six years under Starmer and
Ed Miliband. The role was given to
Richard Hermer who was given a
life peerage. Thornberry was reportedly disappointed by this alleged snub. In July 2024, Thornberry was one of five politicians to cover for
James O'Brien's radio show on
LBC, as part of the station's "Guest Week". In September 2024, Thornberry refused to confirm whether Israel was committing war crimes but defended the British government's decision to enact a partial ban on arms sales to Israel, saying "we want to be on the right side of the law". On 11 September, Thornberry was elected Chair of the
Foreign Affairs Committee by vote in the House of Commons. In October 2024, when asked whether starving northern Gaza would constitute a war crime, Thornberry responded that there had been war crimes on "all sides", naming Hamas and
Iran. In March 2025, Thornberry criticised the Israeli government for breaking a ceasefire deal between it and Hamas, alleging that Netanyahu resumed hostilities to remain in power. Calling for a political solution to the
Gaza war, she refused to support sanctions against Israel. In May 2025, Thornberry criticised Israel and said it had no right to refuse to allow aid and food into Gaza, adding that innocent children should not be starved to death. She also called for the United Kingdom to recognise
Palestine and referred to the Israeli government as "far-right". In August 2025, Thornberry wrote "This Ambassador is clearly an idiot" on
X (formerly known as Twitter) in response to a post by the
United States ambassador to Israel,
Mike Huckabee which criticised the British government's opposition to Israeli plans to occupy
Gaza City and expel a million Palestinians. Thornberry emerged as the frontrunner in the
2025 Labour Party deputy leadership election that was triggered by the resignation of
Angela Rayner following
a tax scandal. She criticised the party leadership over its refusal to listen to members and argued that the government had made too many mistakes, including on Gaza and welfare. However, after garnering just 13 nominations from fellow members of the
Parliamentary Labour Party, falling short of the 80 nominations needed, she announced her withdrawal from the contest. ==Campaigns==