Labour's Emily Thornberry thinks she's a gay icon

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry has bestowed an important title on herself ahead of the general election on Thursday (June 8).

During the Evening Standard’s election hustings on Tuesday (June 6), Emily spoke about the following she has among gay men and lesbians.

Emily told the audience of her popularity among lesbians: “I was told by my brother, who has a large restaurant, that a big group of lesbians were sitting at a big table and they said to him ‘Oh, so you’re gay: is Emily?’”

Thornberry, who is married to barrister Christopher Nugee, then said that she considers herself to be a gay icon.

“I’ve been a gay icon a number of times,” she said, “especially when I spun the decks at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.”

When asked what it takes to be a gay icon, Emily said “you’ve got to be bolshie”, meaning deliberately combative or uncooperative. She isn’t wrong …

Emily took the place of Diane Abbott at the hustings after Abbott pulled out of the event due to illness.

Research released ahead of the election shows the number of LGBT+ candidates standing to be MPs for each party. Andrew Reynolds and Gabriele Magni from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have evaluated every candidate standing at the general election to give a clear picture of the diversity of each party in terms of sexuality and gender identity.

A total of 154 out of the 3304 candidates standing in Thursday’s election are LGBT+, which equates to roughly 4.5%. The vast majority of the LGBT+ candidates are white gay men – 23 are women, 4 are transgender, and only 3 are non-white.

Updated Tues 11am: LGBTQ Candidates UKGE17 pic.twitter.com/aE5r6d4xMi

— Andrew Reynolds (@AndyReynoldsUNC) June 6, 2017

Of the main political parties, the SNP has the highest proportion of LGBT+ candidates by far, with 10 of their prospective MPs (17% of the party’s total candidates) identifying as LGBT+.

Labour and the Tories both have the exact same number of LGBT+ candidates, with 42 apiece. This represents 7% of the total amount standing. Liberal Democrats and Greens fare slightly worse, with 5% and 4% respectively.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry thinks she’s a gay icon

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