About Emily Thornberry
Dame Emily Anne Thornberry (born 27 July 1960) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 until the 2024 general election, and previously from 2011 to 2014. Thornberry has also served in a number of other senior positions on Labour's front bench, namely as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2020, Shadow First Secretary of State from 2017 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2020 to 2021. The daughter of a teacher and a diplomat, Emily Thornberry was born in Guildford, Surrey, and attended a local secondary modern school. After graduating from the University of Kent at Canterbury, she worked as a human rights lawyer from 1985 to 2005 and joined the Transport and General Workers' Union. She was first elected to Parliament in 2005 and served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet from 2011 until she resigned in 2014 after sending a tweet that it was claimed mocked a house with England flags. After Jeremy Corbyn won the 2015 Labour leadership election, she was appointed Shadow Minister of State for Employment in September 2015, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in January 2016 and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in June 2016. She was a candidate to succeed Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party in the 2020 leadership election but was eliminated from the race after failing to obtain the number of nominations needed. Thornberry was appointed to Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Shadow President of the Board of Trade in April 2020. She was appointed Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales in November 2021, but did not receive a ministerial position in Starmer's post-election government formed in July 2024. In the 2025 New Year Honours Thornberry was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for political and public service. In 2006, Thornberry won the ePolitix Award for Environment Champion of the Year after being nominated by WWF. After Corbyn announced he was stepping down as leader, Thornberry was the first to announce that she would be running for leader of the Labour Party.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.