Labour remains in turmoil after Emily Thornberry and 'White Van Dan'

Ed Miliband was facing fresh charges from Labour MPs today of allowing the party to lose its historic connection to its core support.

The recriminations follow the furore over the sacking of Emily Thornberry as a shadow minister for tweeting a picture of a house draped in three England flags.

It was widely interpreted as evidence of a patronising view of working-class voters among the leading Labour figures.

Former minister Frank Field said the flag incident was “the most serious thing that has happened” to the party, telling the Sunday Times.

It’s the north London set we’ve got to control. They are a Berlin Wall trying to prevent us reaching out to our voters and like the Berlin Wall they’ve got to be demolished. Ed’s trying to move us on immigration and welfare and with one blast of a tweet she wrecks that and puts us back to square one. The real problem we have is that there’s a whole group of them.

• Frank Field

But the Hackney MP Diane Abbott said Mr Miliband was wrong to sack his shadow minister, telling Sky News: “Emily Thornberry is not a snob, she doesn’t look down on council tenants.”

However, Mr Miliband’s decision was defended by the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Rachel Reeves. She said: “I thought Emily was being condescending and disrespectful of people actually who I went into politics to serve, so I think it’s right that she went."

More: 'White Van Dan' unveils his vision for the country