Today’s Defence Questions showed how hard Emily Thornberry’s job will be

Emily Thornberry is a competent Commons performer. Her questions are clear and precise and, in her first Defence Questions today, she showed that she understood the range of her brief, with inquiries on RAF capability and pensions for war veterans.

But that’s not why she was promoted. She was promoted because she is prepared to support scrapping Trident missiles.

So, while she came across well, her Commons appearance today also showed what a difficult job she will have. The Labour benches behind her were almost empty. Most of those who had turned up from the Opposition side were not there to egg on a unilateralist viewpoint.

John Woodcock, Kevan Jones, Pat McFadden, Angela Smith, Madeleine Moon, Dan Jarvis, Dave Hanson, Tom Blenkinsop, Stephen Doughty, Conor McGinn – there was no wall of unconditional support behind her, and several even stood up to voice their backing for Trident renewal.

Kevan Jones, who served on Labour’s Defence team for six years, decried the “ill-informed comments from my party” on Trident that had emerged over the weekend. Dave Hanson, a former Security and Counter-Terrorism minister, declared that he did not believe ISIS had any “strong points” – viewed as a McFaddenesque barb at Corbyn.

Not that Michael Fallon needed any excuse to mention these topics. Giving up the Falklands, he said, finding strong points of ISIS and having Trident submarines without missiles “may be Labour’s defence policy, but they will never be Britain’s defence policy”.

On the frontbench, multilateralist Toby Perkins sat stationary and fixedly ashen-faced throughout.

Thornberry showed today, in her brief moments, that she is more than just a conduit for Corbyn’s views on Trident. But that doesn’t mean people won’t see her that way. She’s got a big job.

Now read Emily Thornberry’s hopes for the Defence policy review.