'You're not a fan of St George's Flag though!' Stephen Dixon pulls apart Emily Thornberry 'made a mistake - I resigned!'

'You're not a fan of St George's Flag though!' Stephen Dixon pulls apart Emily Thornberry 'made a mistake - I resigned!'

'You're not a fan of St George's Flag though!' Stephen Dixon pulls apart Emily Thornberry

GB News
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 22/03/2024

- 11:41

Updated: 22/03/2024

- 12:53

Emily Thornberry was forced to resign after an image she tweeted of a house covered in St Georges flag in 2014 went viral

GB News hit Stephen Dixon pulled apart Labour MP Emily Thornberry for commenting on the St Georges flag football drama and claimed: "You are not a fan of the flag though."

Thornberry resigned from Labour's front bench in 2014 after sending a tweet during the Rochester and Strood by-election of a house covered in flags and the photo was branded as "snobby".


Speaking to GB News today, the politician commented on The FA having refused to recall the England football kit featuring an altered St George’s cross.

In an interview with Stephen and Anne Diamond on Breakfast she said: "I think it's all very odd. I mean, if you look at it, what has Nike done?

Anne Diamond, Stephen Dixon, Emily Thornberry

Stephen Dixon hit out at the Labour MP

GB News

"I mean, seriously, I can hardly recognize it as the England flag, can you? I mean, England flag is a simple white background and a red cross.

"Why can't they just leave it alone? Imagine how cross the French would get if they started putting bits of purple on the tricolour.

"Or they changed the Welsh flag and took away the dragon to stick a pussycat on instead. I mean, people would be up in arms. Why can't we just have us just a straight England flag on the back of these shirts?"

Stephen then commented: "To be fair, you're not a particular fan of the Saint George's Cross, are you? You took the mickey out of someone flying the England flag and you had to resign as a result of it."

Navy blue, light blue and pink replaced the horizontal line of the traditional red cross.Navy blue, light blue and pink replaced the horizontal line of the traditional red crossNIKE

Thornberry said: "I took a photo ten years ago of a house that was completely covered in England flags. Is that what you mean?

"People made all sorts of assumptions about it. I'm so far beyond trying to sort of explain this. It was a photograph and other people decided what it was that I was thinking or saying.

"I mean, as I say, it was a very long time ago, but as far as I was concerned if I was going to do any damage to the Labour Party, I resigned.

"Do you remember when people used to do that? When they made a mistake? We haven't seen that forever. I think from this lot they don't do resigning, do they? Otherwise there wouldn't be any of them left.

Emily ThornberryEmily Thornberry said that she "made a mistake and she resigned" GB News

Speaking about the new flag colour, Nike said: “The England 2024 Home kit disrupts history with a modern take on a classic.

"The trim on the cuffs takes its cues from the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, with a gradient of blues and reds topped with purple.

"The same colours also feature an interpretation of the flag of St. George on the back of the collar.”

The Labour leader Keir Starmer has also argued that the kit should be changed back. He said: "I think it was wrong.

"As you know, I'm a big football fan. I go to England games - men's and women's games - and the flag is used by everybody.

""It is a unifier, it doesn't need to be changed, we just need to be proud of it - so, I think they should just reconsider this and change it back. I'm not even sure they can properly explain why they thought they needed to change it in the first place.

""One more thing on that for me, they could also reduce the price of the shirts - I think it's £130."

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