What does white van man think of Thornberry’s tweet?

Picture: David Harrington and his white van

Emily Thornberry was elected as MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 2005 and until last night was the shadow attorney general. She resigned from the shadow cabinet after posting an image of a house with three England flags on it and a white van outside, accompanied by the caption: “Image from #Rochester”.

Image from #Rochester pic.twitter.com/rOjTgpskmF

— Emily Thornberry MP (@EmilyThornberry) November 20, 2014

Daniel Harrington, 59, is renovating a kitchen in a house on Myddelton Street, Islington. He drives a white van for his DIY business and thinks the whole controversy is “very odd”.

“It’s an English woman that’s got the problem? That’s very odd. There’s the St George’s flag, on his house. He’s proud of where he’s from.

“I go to Spain a lot and people put out football flags and Spanish flags all the time and there’s not a problem with it, but it seems that here there is.

“I don’t think its offensive. Offensive to who?”

If there’s a problem with flying an England flag, then there’s something wrong with the country. Wesley Harrington, 34

His son, 34-year-old Wesley Harrington, agrees: “I live in Walthamstow and there’s a Pakistani flag at the end of the road and I ain’t bothered by it.

“Perhaps I should be in a little way, I’m in England. But if there’s a problem with flying an England flag, then there’s something wrong with the country.”

‘Very silly’

Dan Ware, the resident of the house in Rochester photographed by Ms Thornberry said that he thought she was a “snob”. Ed Miliband said her tweet had been “disrespectful”.

One elderly woman, who didn’t want to be named, told Channel 4 News: “You should think twice before you do something like that. She’s very silly to have done that.

“I don’t think MPs are out of touch. She was at the memorial service the other week, that’s the sort of thing an MP should be doing. She was silly really though, doing that though [sending the tweet].”

Seventy-eight year old Joe Trotter, a former Lib Dem councillor in the area, told Channel 4 News: “She’s a snob and can’t talk to local people. I’m glad she’s resigned.”

‘Nothing wrong with that flag’

At a block of flats just behind Sadler’s Wells theatre in the heart of Thornberry’s constituency, one flat flies a giant England flag from the balcony.

Would the local MP find this unusual? Julie, one of the residents in the block, says she would be shocked if she did.

“There’s nothing wrong with that flag,” she said. “They just probably like football. My husband’s got two white vans. I don’t care about these politicians, they’re out of touch.”

Back at the house on Myddelton Street, Daniel Harrington says it won’t make him change how he votes.

“I voted Labour at the last election, I’d probably vote Labour again,” he said.

“She’s just one person in a group. A lot of people pretend to have these views because they think it’s the right thing to do. They’re wrong.”

“I think most of the MPs are out of touch with the person on the street. The normal working man on the street, I think they’re way out of touch with that.”