When the pundits and poll watchers look back at 2017, they will no doubt focus on Theresa May’s botched general election campaign, Corbyn’s great comeback and the trials and tribulations of Brexit. However, I suggest there is another story that they might be missing: the quiet rise of Emily Thornberry. The shadow foreign secretary has come a long way since 2014, when she was forced to resign from Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet following her ill-advised tweet during the Rochester and Strood by-election. She is now one of Labour’s most polished performers, demonstrated by her leading role in the 2017 general election campaign and her bamboozling of Boris Johnson across the dispatch box this week as the foreign secretary struggled to save his job.

Source: The Times November 16, 2017 00:56 UTC