You were celebrating the re-election of Assad with 99 per cent of the vote – Thornberry ambushes Michael Fallon

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, today confronted Michael Fallon about his meeting with Bashar al-Assad a decade ago after the dictator was “re-elected” in Syria.

She ambushed the defence secretary after he attacked Jeremy Corbyn over his past contact with former members of the IRA.

The Tory cabinet minister claimed the session with Assad, on 27 May 2007, was not a “celebration”, and rather an all-parliamentary fact-finding visit, as he was taken by surprise on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Sofa chat with Michael Fallon and @EmilyThornberry #marr pic.twitter.com/7Ji3UJz156

— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) May 14, 2017