Emily Thornberry, shadow Attorney General
(Picture: PA)Labour’s Emily Thornberry has questioned whether Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda relocation policy for migrants will actually go ahead, despite being given the green light by the High Court yesterday.
Speaking at a festive live recording of The Political Party podcast last night, the shadow attorney general, far right, said of the policy: “Let’s see where it goes next”. She added that even if it is legal, the idea was not “fair” or “decent”. Thornberry had an awkward moment when she dodged a question about flying the England flag during the World Cup. In 2014, she had to resign from the front bench for posting a seemingly snobbish photo of a house covered in England flags.
Also there was shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, who urged Labour supporters not to assume they will win power, saying the party under Keir Starmer “have no complacency and we know there is a long way to go.”
Cooper said she often has “rows” on Christmas Eve with husband Ed Balls over last-minute shopping. The pair sang along to a fun version of to Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone to end the night.
Positively Coronation Street
Bob Dylan has revealed that he is a fan of Coronation Street. The US song-writing legend says the Salford soap is “old fashioned” but makes him “feel at home”. He told the Wall Street Journal he’s also a fan of Father Brown, a British priest-detective series, but that he doesn’t watch the news. Dylan added: “I never watch anything foul-smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting, nothing dog ass.” Street star Helen Worth, right, who has played Gail Platt for 48 years, will be thrilled.
Confront ugly truths, says former Wellcome curator
The curator of a medical exhibit that was taken down over racist and sexist imagery has queried the decision to hide offensive historical items from public view. A Medicine Man show at the Wellcome Collection charted founder Henry Wellcome’s varied collection of medical paraphernalia. Last month directors said parts of the show were “based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language” and closed it. They were then accused of “cultural vandalism” in some quarters.
Ken Arnold, who curated the exhibit, has warned about hiding historical misdeeds. “Redressing huge wrongs and offences built on past assumptions should be part of the museum mix,” he writes in the Art Newspaper. “We have all learned much from being confronted with ugly truths that have for far too long been masked or glossed over.”
Last night in town
Actors Naomi Ackie and Stanley Tucci attended the London premiere of I Wanna Dance With Somebody in Soho last night. Ackie is Whitney Houston in the biopic while dapper Stan plays her record producer. DJ Clara Amfo, footballer Leah Williamson and Love Islander Paige Thorne went too. At the Ambassadors Theatre, thespian couple Imogen Poots and James Norton, and director JJ Abrams went to Liz Kingsman’s hit comedy One Woman Show. Norton likes it so much he’s been twice. “It’s so hard hitting, it rips the rug out”, he told us.
