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SOPHY RIDGE: Joining us now in the studio is the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, hello, thanks for being with us. Jeremy Corbyn this weekend has said I can still be Prime Minister, this is still on. Do you think he can still be Prime Minister?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes, let’s see what happens, let’s see what happens. What have we got? We’ve got Theresa May squatting in Downing Street, we’ve got a full rebellion going on in the Conservative party, we’ve got no idea as to what’s going to be in the Queen’s Speech. They had a manifesto that has completely been repudiated by the public and indeed by Tory MPs themselves, we have no idea what the DUP is going to agree to or not so …

SR: So are you preparing for government then?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes, we have to be, we have to be absolutely on our toes.

SR: You accept that you lost the election though?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Well no, I don't think that we did, I think we did extraordinarily well and I think that we had …

SR: You got fewer votes and seats than the Conservatives though.

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes but what’s clear from our side is that we have a surge of support for our manifesto and for our alternative vision of what Britain could be like and we have a much stronger mandate for that than frankly the Tories do. What do the Tories stand for now? Who knows?

SR: But that’s not the same as winning an election though is it?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes but let’s see how the Tories do, let’s see if they are able to hold it together and if not then we will step up, we would love the opportunity to serve.

SR: Okay, maybe you can help me out with some of the maths here, maths was never my strong point I will admit. So if you do a deal with the SNP, they have got 35 MPs and convince the Lib Dems to support you, that’s another 12, Greens have got one, Plaid Cymru four, so if Jeremy Corbyn persuades Sinn Fein to come over to Westminster which would give you a handful more, even then you would still only have 321 seats. That’s not a majority unless you get into bed with the DUP which is what you have criticised the Conservatives for doing.

EMILY THORNBERRY: We are not getting into bed with anybody. We would be an alternative government, we would be a minority government, we would put forward our Queen’s Speech which is incredibly popular, our policies are popular, our policies are what the country wants. We would put forward a Queen’s Speech, we would put forward a budget and it would be up to the other parties and indeed some Conservative MPs to decide if they wanted to support it or not.

SR: But how can you put together a minority government when you have got so many fewer seats than the Conservative party?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Let’s see, let’s see. I mean we’re in uncharted territory, all I am telling you is that our manifesto is popular, our vision for Britain is right, they have no idea of what they’re doing, we are waiting in the wings, we will step in if we are required and if we are called upon to serve.

SR: So in a month’s time do you think Jeremy Corbyn could be in Number 10?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Who knows? Let’s see.

SR: So you are certainly leaving the door open.

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes, yes.

SR: You lost the election campaign, even though for many it seems like a win because you increased your seats by about a million votes but in what many people feel is one of the worst political campaigns in history. What does that say about the state of the Labour party if you couldn’t even beat Theresa May and a campaign that by all accounts was a bit of a disaster?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Let me tell you this, Sophy. If you look at the polls today it would seem that we are five points ahead of the Conservatives, I think we are going to go through a period when Labour will become increasingly popular and the reason is this: not just because we are united behind our policies but actually we show what the Labour party can be if we are united and the Tories in the meantime are falling apart. We have learnt over the last couple of years that a disunited party is an unpopular party, what we showed during the election is just what a force we can be if we stick together and that is what we can do because frankly there is very little that we disagree on within the Labour party and we have to remember what we agree on and we have to take the fight to the Tories.

SR: You talked there about a disunited party, what would you say to the people in Labour over the last couple of years who have publicly doubted Jeremy Corbyn, who launched leadership contests against him, who have organised votes of no confidence in him?

EMILY THORNBERRY: They underestimated him and I think they accept that so let’s put that behind us and let’s look forward because that’s what’s important, that we look forward and we look forward together.

SR: You must feel a sense of getting things right though and that they got it wrong and you got it right.

EMILY THORNBERRY: I don’t feel that, I feel really pleased that we have done as well as we have and I think that we are on the verge of government and that is fantastic.

SR: Would you welcome some of those critics back to the front bench?

EMILY THORNBERRY: I think that we need to use all our talents, there are lots of different things that people can do but yes, we have to be a united party. It’s up to Jeremy who does what but yes of course, we have a range of talents and experience and we need to use them.

SR: You are someone who is very close to Jeremy Corbyn, you work very closely with him, you are neighbouring constituencies, are you getting the feeling that he is preparing to reach out to some of those people who have been perhaps left on the back benches?

EMILY THORNBERRY: All I can say is that Jeremy’s approach has always been one where he has tried to be as inclusive as he possibly can be and I’m sure he will continue to do that.

SR: So that’s a yes is it?

EMILY THORNBERRY: I’m telling you it is not my job, it’s Jeremy’s job!

SR: Let’s talk a bit about the situation that the Conservative party find themselves in now with the DUP, how do you feel about the prospect of this agreement between the Conservatives and the DUP?

EMILY THORNBERRY: I don't know what it means and I don’t understand what it means, I don't know what the deal is and that is what is so extraordinary. The Tories have won the election and yet we don’t know what it is that they are going to do and they don’t even know what they’re going to do. Nobody has any idea what’s going to be in their Queen’s Speech, Theresa May doesn’t know, she has to go into negotiations with Philip Hammond it seems who is supposed to be her Chancellor of the Exchequer. They are in disarray so we do not know what is going to happen next so it is very difficult for me to critique it in that way. There is one thing that concerns me and that is the role of the government in the Good Friday Agreement because it’s written into the Good Friday Agreement that the government should be scrupulously impartial in relation to the two sides. That’s kind of hard isn’t it if you are in coalition with one of the two sides? There might be crises that might come up, we’re heading for the marching season and there have been times when the Secretary of State has had to step in, in order to ensure that peace is kept on the streets. Obviously nobody wants to see a situation where the Secretary of State is embarrassed and feels he has to trade off the coalition with potential problems in Northern Ireland.

SR: In all honesty though, if you were in the same position as Theresa May wouldn’t you be looking to do precisely the same deal with the Brexit talks days away, don’t you need to have a majority in government?

EMILY THORNBERRY: I would never be in the position of Theresa May. She did not need to call this election, she called this election in order to get rid of the opposition. She said she wanted to have a mandate, what kind of mandate does she now have? If I was Theresa May I would be resigning.

SR: But she got more votes than Jeremy Corbyn so shouldn’t Jeremy Corbyn be resigning as well, he lost the election?

EMILY THORNBERRY: No. No, that’s a silly question! Sorry!

SR: Now let’s talk about these Brexit negotiations because that is the big issue now facing the country. Do you think that Theresa May should now be the one sitting down in front of those representatives from Brussels and leading those talks?

EMILY THORNBERRY: It’s very difficult. It’s not really about personalities on this more than what’s in the interests of the country. Now I’ve been saying for the last year, ever since the referendum, that the best way of approaching this is to do it with the maximum support that you can garnish, so that’s why I said to them put forward a plan, put forward a plan at an early stage, let’s talk about it in parliament, let’s have a united position and they simply haven’t been able to do that because they have been trying to manage internal problems within the Conservative party. What we have said is that the way in which you can bring people who voted to leave and people who voted to remain together is by putting forward a clear policy which is about the economy, which is about jobs first. We should have a jobs first strong Brexit, that’s what we should be working together on and that’s what I think the right approach is. The difficulty is that it is very difficult to work with them because that is clearly not what they want, they want… If they go into this with no deal is better than a bad deal or whatever, they are contemplating not having a deal at all and just walking away. That would be really damaging for our economy and for our country and it is quite clear. We have six tests, if they want to work on our six tests with us I wouldn’t have a problem with that but as I say, I think they are so far apart from us, I think it would be very difficult for us to work together.

SR: Would it be so difficult though? If you did get a call from Boris Johnson for example saying he wants to get around the table with you and Kier Starmer and David Davis from the Conservative party, would you be open to that?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Yes, listen, a few years ago we got the call on social care from the Tories and they said let’s work together in working out what the answer to social care is and we went, I went to Number 10 and we began the negotiations and the Tories pulled out. In good faith of course we would go into it but we have a clear idea of what we want from Brexit and frankly the Tories are all over the place.

SR: So maybe it should be you who reaches out the hand and writes the letter to Boris Johnson to say let’s get round the table.

EMILY THORNBERRY: They claim that they’re in government, let them begin it, it would have to be their initiative.

SR: Okay, now you are Shadow Foreign Secretary, you speak to representatives from different countries all the time, what has their reaction been to this election do you think?

EMILY THORNBERRY: I’ve not spoken to anybody in relation to … well actually no, I spoke to Martin Shultz but apart from Martin Shultz who is the leader of the left in Germany I’ve not spoken to anybody yet. Clearly there’s great concern about it, they want to get a good deal for Britain, for Brexit and they are concerned about the chaos that is currently happening in Britain but they want to get on with the negotiations.

SR: So if there is that chaos and they do want to get on with the negotiations which I assume is what you want as well, is it right for Labour to be effectively calling on Theresa May to resign?

EMILY THORNBERRY: What we are calling for is a united position on Brexit around our six tests and around a jobs first Brexit, that’s what our position has been absolutely throughout for the last year, we are all united about that. We have made that clear throughout this election, that’s what we stand for, that’s what the negotiations should be based on.

SR: What do you think that the election results means for Brexit now going forward? If there was a vote for example on leaving the single market, would Labour support it?

EMILY THORNBERRY: We have said that it is difficult for us to remain technically in the single market if we are leaving the European Union and we are leaving the European Union so we need to remain as close as we can to the economy of Europe because so many of our jobs depend on it and half of our trade is with the European Union so we need to begin on that position. People get a bit hung up about whether we’re technically in the single market or not but what we have said is that we want to have a tariff free, red tape free, access to the single market.

SR: So is the Norway model on the table then where you have to accept free movement of people but you can still have access, be a member of the single market?

EMILY THORNBERRY: Unfortunately we are not in government, we are not leading the negotiations. We have made clear what our priorities are …

SR: But it’s important what your view is because of the situation in the House of Commons.

EMILY THORNBERRY: Let me just preface what I’m saying with that. So we have said we are leaving the European Union, that we will be responsible for our own borders, that we will ensure that we have fair rules and we will have managed migration and that will be there but we need to balance the needs of our economy with the needs of our communities when it comes to immigration.

SR: Okay, well it’s been good to speak to you, you certainly seem happy with that election result. Maybe a high five with Jeremy Corbyn now? I’ll leave it there! Emily Thornberry, thank you very much.