>*Today in the House, I asked what I hoped was a perfectly sensible and straightforward question to the Attorney General, and received a response that started out inexplicably evasive and ended up entirely* **🦇💩**
>
> — *Emily Thornberry @EmilyThornberry* [May 26, 2022](https://nitter.net/EmilyThornberry/status/1529869243617001473#m)
How many times is it now the Shadow Attorney General has called the Attorney General **🦇💩**…?
–
anyways:
>According to the newspaper, Braverman advised the PM that overriding the agreement would be legal because the EU’s implementation of it had been “disproportionate and unreasonable”.
>
>But Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, pointed to a convention that bans law officers from disclosing any legal advice they give without the government’s authority – a move that if broken would be a breach of the ministerial code and warrant a resignation.
>
>The ministerial code reads: “The fact that the law officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside government without their authority.”
>
>Thornberry said: “The attorney general said again today that there is a long-standing convention that prevents her from discussing either the fact or the content of her legal advice on the Northern Ireland protocol, which makes it all the more remarkable that, on Wednesday 11 May, The Times newspaper and BBC Newsnight not only disclosed the fact of her legal advice, but actually quoted from its contents.”
>
>“Let me ask her a very straightforward question that requires only a yes or no answer: did she personally authorise the briefings to The Times and Newsnight regarding her advice on the protocol — yes or no?” …
–
From the Times article:
>Suella Braverman has advised that legislation to override the Northern Ireland protocol would be legal because the EU’s implementation of it is “disproportionate and unreasonable”.
>
>In evidence accompanying her findings, Braverman says that the EU is undermining the Good Friday agreement by creating a trade barrier in the Irish Sea and fuelling civil unrest.
>
>Her submission argues that the agreement has “[primordial significance](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/12/experts-scorn-uk-government-claim-it-can-ditch-parts-of-ni-protocol)” and is more important than the protocol. “There’s mountains of evidence that there’s a trade barrier down the middle of our country,” said a government source. “Suella has argued that trade is being diverted.”
>
>Her submission also details “societal unrest” and cites hoax bomb attacks, [including one targeting Simon Coveney](https://archive.ph/4xTaq), the Irish foreign minister. “There are increasing signs of violence in Northern Ireland,” the source said. “That can’t be allowed to carry on.”
>
>([🪞 link](https://archive.ph/DVuad))
Apart from the advice being utterly stupid; it is one hell of a leak.
Attorney General has embarrassing meltdown when questioned by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Fixed the headline for you.
Why did she get that job exactly?
Emily Thornberry always makes me laugh
Suella ‘Fake it like Johnson’ Braverman.
Just where do the tories dig these up from?
That was embarrassing to watch. I hope whenever she can’t sleep she lies awake cringing at that moment
There is something deeply rotten and smelly in our current leadership.
That this knucklehead is a qualified Barrister is a wonder to me.
Less than 10 years ago things like this would be massive news and lead to resignations or at least investigations. Now it is barely a Tweet. This government doesn’t even pretend to have integrity and we’re beyond pretending Parliament had any power or that rules apply to government.
She’s a twat and this isn’t the first time she’s leaked something to the press whilst holding that office.
I don’t think Thornberry will ever get over the white-van-flag-castle thing but I’m quite surprised no one in the chamber picked up that Braverman conflated the StGeorges flag with the United Kingdom’s flag.
How are they attacking Thornberry as some kind of Leninist? She’s *New* Labour they’re not exactly fucking revolutionaries are they.
Honestly just a sorry indictment of the state of politics in this country a tweeted picture with no comment attached *nearly a decade ago* apparently carries more weight in the minds of much of the public than Conservatives actively raping and pillaging our nation right before our eyes, laughing gleefully while their policies sent tens of thousands of us to a lonely death.
13 comments
First:
>*Today in the House, I asked what I hoped was a perfectly sensible and straightforward question to the Attorney General, and received a response that started out inexplicably evasive and ended up entirely* **🦇💩**
>
> — *Emily Thornberry @EmilyThornberry* [May 26, 2022](https://nitter.net/EmilyThornberry/status/1529869243617001473#m)
How many times is it now the Shadow Attorney General has called the Attorney General **🦇💩**…?
–
anyways:
>According to the newspaper, Braverman advised the PM that overriding the agreement would be legal because the EU’s implementation of it had been “disproportionate and unreasonable”.
>
>But Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, pointed to a convention that bans law officers from disclosing any legal advice they give without the government’s authority – a move that if broken would be a breach of the ministerial code and warrant a resignation.
>
>The ministerial code reads: “The fact that the law officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside government without their authority.”
>
>Thornberry said: “The attorney general said again today that there is a long-standing convention that prevents her from discussing either the fact or the content of her legal advice on the Northern Ireland protocol, which makes it all the more remarkable that, on Wednesday 11 May, The Times newspaper and BBC Newsnight not only disclosed the fact of her legal advice, but actually quoted from its contents.”
>
>“Let me ask her a very straightforward question that requires only a yes or no answer: did she personally authorise the briefings to The Times and Newsnight regarding her advice on the protocol — yes or no?” …
–
From the Times article:
>Suella Braverman has advised that legislation to override the Northern Ireland protocol would be legal because the EU’s implementation of it is “disproportionate and unreasonable”.
>
>In evidence accompanying her findings, Braverman says that the EU is undermining the Good Friday agreement by creating a trade barrier in the Irish Sea and fuelling civil unrest.
>
>Her submission argues that the agreement has “[primordial significance](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/12/experts-scorn-uk-government-claim-it-can-ditch-parts-of-ni-protocol)” and is more important than the protocol. “There’s mountains of evidence that there’s a trade barrier down the middle of our country,” said a government source. “Suella has argued that trade is being diverted.”
>
>Her submission also details “societal unrest” and cites hoax bomb attacks, [including one targeting Simon Coveney](https://archive.ph/4xTaq), the Irish foreign minister. “There are increasing signs of violence in Northern Ireland,” the source said. “That can’t be allowed to carry on.”
>
>([🪞 link](https://archive.ph/DVuad))
Apart from the advice being utterly stupid; it is one hell of a leak.
Attorney General has embarrassing meltdown when questioned by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Fixed the headline for you.
Why did she get that job exactly?
Emily Thornberry always makes me laugh
Suella ‘Fake it like Johnson’ Braverman.
Just where do the tories dig these up from?
That was embarrassing to watch. I hope whenever she can’t sleep she lies awake cringing at that moment
There is something deeply rotten and smelly in our current leadership.
That this knucklehead is a qualified Barrister is a wonder to me.
Less than 10 years ago things like this would be massive news and lead to resignations or at least investigations. Now it is barely a Tweet. This government doesn’t even pretend to have integrity and we’re beyond pretending Parliament had any power or that rules apply to government.
She’s a twat and this isn’t the first time she’s leaked something to the press whilst holding that office.
The video of her dystopian outburst
https://twitter.com/Politics_co_uk/status/1529772350241222656
I don’t think Thornberry will ever get over the white-van-flag-castle thing but I’m quite surprised no one in the chamber picked up that Braverman conflated the StGeorges flag with the United Kingdom’s flag.
How are they attacking Thornberry as some kind of Leninist? She’s *New* Labour they’re not exactly fucking revolutionaries are they.
Honestly just a sorry indictment of the state of politics in this country a tweeted picture with no comment attached *nearly a decade ago* apparently carries more weight in the minds of much of the public than Conservatives actively raping and pillaging our nation right before our eyes, laughing gleefully while their policies sent tens of thousands of us to a lonely death.