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Media criticised for ‘desperate’ questioning of Labour’s nuclear policy on Armistice Day

Matthew Nixon

Emily Thornberry said: The use of a nuclear weapon is a decision on a level that no politician anywhere has to make it is completely out on its own. Photo: ITV - Credit: Archant

Two broadcasters have been criticised for their ‘desperate’ and ‘needless’ questioning of Jeremy Corbyn’s nuclear weapons policy on Armistice Day.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, was grilled by Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan and BBC Radio 4 Today programme’s Nick Robinson.

On Good Morning Britian, Piers Morgan was accused of “desperately trying to draw Emily Thornberry into a slanging match” over Brexit, and also “brow beating her over trident and trying to get her to say something controversial”, according to one reaction on Twitter.

Morgan asked Thornberry: “Jeremy Corbyn has stated his position as – he would never use a nuclear weapon. If he is prime minister and you are foreign secretary, this could be very real in four to five weeks time. Would you use a nuclear weapon if you have to?”

Thornberry replied that generations of leaders have not made their position on using nuclear weapons clear, as “it’s best for us not to say one way or the other whether we would use it or not”.

She continued: “The use of a nuclear weapon is a decision on a level that no politician anywhere has to make it is completely out on its own. No one knows how or whether they would use it because it has such extraordinary force. Millions of people can be killed. It’s impossible for any human to say.”

Morgan was also criticised for asking Thornberry about Corbyn’s views on apparently never supporting the armed forces, although it is the party’s policy to provide better support if they are elected.

On Radio 4’s Today programme, Nick Robinson was criticised further for asking whether the leader of the opposition had backed the Falklands war.

Robinson told Thornberry that Corbyn’s questioning of NATO in furthering tensions between Russia and the UK and US and his opposition to nuclear weapons was “a failure to support our armed forces”.

He also criticised Corbyn’s opposition to military intervention in Kosovo, Syria, and Libya, and his unwillingness to blame Russia for the Salisbury chemical attack until all the facts were known.

One Twitter user said: “On Armistice Day and days after the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War – Emily Thornberry being unable to categorically state if Labour would use a nuclear weapon, is apparently a bad thing.”

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