Labour war breaks out as Ed Miliband claims he respects White Van Man Labour MPs split after Miliband orders Emily Thornberry to stand down Some branded gaffe 'horrendous' while others called her treatment unfair Aides said Miliband was 'angrier than he has ever been' after news brokeÂ By James Chapman and John Stevens for the Daily Mail Ed Miliband tried to end Labourâ€™s disastrous â€˜elitismâ€™ row yesterday by insisting he admires the working classes. Ukipâ€™s second poll victory over the Tories had been eclipsed by a Labour frontbencher apparently sneering at a white van driver whose modest home is decked with England flags. Mr Miliband bizarrely declared he felt â€˜respectâ€™ on seeing a white van and insisted it was right for Emily Thornberry to resign over her tweet.Â Laughing in the face of disaster: Ed Miliband grins as he leaves his house in Gospel Oak, North London, yesterday despite claims he was 'furious' after hearing about Miss Thornberry's tweet But his desperate intervention failed to calm Labour Party turmoil.Â Some of his MPs said Miss Thornberryâ€™s gaffe was â€˜horrendousâ€™ while others claimed he was playing into Tory hands by asking her to quit. On a dramatic day at Westminster: The full scale of the doomed Tory attempt to hold Rochester was laid bare, with Cabinet ministers making 100 visits; Nigel Farage claimed Labour had shown itself to be â€˜anti-Englishâ€™ and Ukip was now the party of the working class; A potential Tory defector welcomed Ukipâ€™s new MP back to Westminster and sided with the party in an NHS vote; David Cameron was urged by Tory MPs to toughen his stance on the EU and immigration; The Lib Dems suffered their worst ever result, finishing fifth with just 349 votes. The furore over Miss Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, erupted after she tweeted the picture of Daniel Wareâ€™s home while campaigning in Rochester. When accused of sneering, she claimed she had â€˜never seen anything likeâ€™ the house and said her critics were prejudiced against Islington, which has become a byword for champagne socialism. But Mr Miliband was said to have exploded in fury when he heard about Miss Thornberryâ€™s tweet, first ordering her to apologise and later telling her to stand down as shadow attorney general. Gaffe: Emily Thornberry, the MP for upmarketÂ Islington South and Finsbury, tweeted this image from Rochester yesterday leading to accusations of snobbery Dan Ware turned up at Ms Thornbury's Â£3million home in Islington and accused her of being a 'snob' Labour strategists had hoped a Ukip landslide in Rochester would mark the moment that pressure switched on to Mr Cameron and away from Mr Miliband, who has endured weeks of speculation about his leadership. But with Ukipâ€™s win narrower than expected, a result likely to deter further potential defectors who want to keep their Commons seats after next Mayâ€™ s election, there was little sign of Tory disunity. Instead, Labour was riven over whether Mr Milibandâ€™s treatment of Miss Thornberry had been over the top and how it should counter the threat to its working-class vote from Ukip. Her treatment was particularly brutal, given that she was the first MP to nominate him for the party leadership. However aides said Mr Miliband was â€˜angrier than he has ever beenâ€™.Â Humiliated: While Miss Thornberry initially apologised over the picture, she stood down as Shadow Attorney General just hours later after speaking with a 'furious' Ed Miliband Some senior figures privately accused the Labour leader of overreacting because of his own sensitivity about accusations made earlier this month in the traditionally supportive New Statesman magazine that he is an â€˜old-style Hampstead socialistâ€™. â€˜Edâ€™s abandoned an ally when his enemies have survived far worse,â€™ one source said. Miss Thornberry said: â€˜I made a mistake, Iâ€™ve resigned and if Iâ€™ve upset anyone or insulted anyone I apologise.â€™Â Mr Miliband insisted: â€˜Iâ€™m afraid her tweet conveyed a sense of disrespect.Â Thatâ€™s not my view, thatâ€™s not Labourâ€™s view, itâ€™s wrong, it never will be our view, and that is why I think it is right that she resigned.â€™ Asked what he thought when he sees a white van outside a house, Mr Miliband replied: â€˜What is going through my mind is respect.Â Aides said Mr Miliband was â€˜angrier than he has ever been' about Miss Thornberryâ€™s tweet Respect is the basic rule of politics and Iâ€™m afraid her tweet conveyed a sense of disrespect. There is nothing unusual or odd, as her tweet implied, with having an England flag in your window.â€™ Mr Cameron said: â€˜Emily Thornberry is one of Ed Milibandâ€™s closest allies and aides. Effectively what this means is that Ed Milibandâ€™s Labour Party sneers at people who work hard, who are patriotic and who love their country.â€™ Mr Farage said Labour voters looking at the partyâ€™s leadership would not recognise them as â€˜members of their own tribeâ€™. Labour MP John Mann said: â€˜It was horrendous. It insults people like me, it insults the people I know â€" my friends and family â€" Labour voters across the country because white vans, England flags, theyâ€™re Labour values.â€™ Ian Austin, a former Labour frontbencher, said: â€˜Lots of people around the country suspect the country is run or politics is run by an out-of-touch metropolitan elite that doesnâ€™t understand anything about their lives, doesnâ€™t understand the pressure theyâ€™re under, doesnâ€™t care about their concerns, and sneers at them.â€™ But Labourâ€™s Alan Johnson said he did not think Miss Thornberry should have quit: â€˜Sheâ€™s not a stranger to council housing â€" itâ€™s where she comes from. It doesnâ€™t sound to me like a resignation scandal.â€™ Though it held the seat for 13 years until 2010, Labour put little effort into the contest in Rochester, triggered by the defection to Ukip of former Conservative MP Mark Reckless, who won it for his new party.