AN MP tipped as a possible future leader of the Labour party visited Bournemouth on Saturday.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry joined Bournemouth East parliamentary candidate Corrie Drew during a campaign event during the evening.

Before meeting local party members at Buffalo Bar in Holdenhurst Road, Mrs Thornberry toured the town to speak with residents.

“I was really struck by how open-minded people are. I think they feel the government is not working,” she told the Daily Echo.

Ms Drew said many people living in Bournemouth have not been approached by any political parties in recent years.

“For such a long time, there has been an assumption that this will always be a Tory seat, but there are a huge wealth of people who are fed up with that,” she said.

The main topic of conversation between the politicians and Bournemouth residents was Brexit, Mrs Thornberry said.

“We seem to have a choice between getting on a bridge to nowhere or falling off a cliff, and that is very worrying,” she said.

“The Tories are saying, it’s our way or the highway. That will not do.”

The MP, a former barrister, said she may back a further referendum if talks break down between Westminster and Brussels – and labelled the current course of Brexit “the biggest constitutional crisis this county has ever faced”.

“Although we need to leave, we don’t need to go very far,” she said.

“That’s the only way to keep this country together and guarantee jobs and the economy.”

Despite criticism that Jeremy Corbyn has been too quiet on the Brexit negotiations, Mrs Thornberry said he is the right man to lead the Labour party.

“He came from a position of being sceptical about the EU, but came to the conclusion we would be better off remaining and looking at reform. That was a completely honest position,” she said.

“There is an authenticity to Jeremy Corbyn - what you see is what you get. People trust him.”

On Labour’s long-running issues with anti-Semitism, Mrs Thornberry said: “In some ways, our party reflects society, but I don’t want it to – I want the party to be better than society.

“There is no room in the Labour party for people who are anti-Semitic.”

Both Mrs Thornberry and Ms Drew also discussed David Cameron’s reported ambition to return to politics.

“He would have to convince a large proportion of the electorate, and he’d have a hard time of that, as well as of trying to convince his own party,” said Ms Drew.

“He gambled all of our futures on his own career and has never had to suffer the consequences of that.”

Mrs Thornberry said: “He wants to come back, not because he feels called to public service or because he feels he could make a contribution, but because he is bored.”