Emily Thornberry has this morning dropped out of the race to be Labour’s new deputy leader. The one-time shadow foreign secretary was the first to signal that she wanted the job, using an interview on the BBC on Sunday to politely fillet Keir Starmer’s government. But in a race dominated by identity politics, she was always going to struggle. Despite her many fans in the media, Thornberry could not muster more than 13 public declarations of support from MPs. Too many of her colleagues reasoned they could not elect a north London lawyer to act as deputy to another north London lawyer. ‘At least Emily has a personality,’ mused one older MP yesterday. Angela Rayner’s departure has left a vacuum that much of the parliamentary party feels can only be filled by another northern woman.

Angela Ra

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