White van men tell us what they think of the white van tweet

This picture of a white van parked on a drive of a house in Rochester, the St George's cross flag flying from the windows, has cost a shadow minister her job.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington in north London, and formerly shadow attorney general, tweeted the picture on Thursday.

The words "image from Rochester" were posted with the picture.

But what people thought she was suggesting was enough to cause a row. Why?

Forget the media and politicians, Newsbeat answers this question by talking to white van man himself. In fact, a few of them.

Tim Casey is from Reading

Tim Casey drives around London every day. He doesn't think Thornberry needed to quit: ''There is too much pressure on these guys and it is a big fuss over nothing.''

Dan Carlton, 24, from Canvey Island and Matt Greeney, 25, from Southend-on-Sea

We caught up with Dan and Matt making deliveries.

They think Thornberry's tweet unfairly portrays people who do their job.

Matt told us: ''I think she is being totally stereotypical to be honest, what is wrong with putting up a few England flags?'

''Just because we do a manual job does not mean we are any lesser than any MP we all graft for our living,'' adds Dan.

''We are manual workers, I have been my whole life and I understand politics much better than they will ever understand manual labour.

''There is nothing wrong with driving a white van. This is all I drive to be honest and I love it.''

Harpit Kholan drives a white van in north London

Harpit Kholan drives a large white van. He too heard about the tweet, but isn't too bothered.

"It's just trying to create a headline and I would not think much of it,'' he told Newsbeat.

What does 'white van man' mean anyway?

The term "white van man" became a well-known phrase the 1990s, used by comedians like Jo Brand.

It was first printed in a newspaper in The Sunday Times in 1997. A bit later, a column was dedicated to the white van man in The Sun for several years.

A study of more than 250 "white van men" by the Oxford-based Social Issues Research Centre found these drivers were viewed with hostility by the British public, with some comparing them to football hooligans.

Another study focused on the road skills of the white van man, measuring how close different vehicles drove to cyclists.

The results suggested van drivers gave cyclists less room than cars.

But figures published by the government earlier this year showed that in 2012 van drivers were half as likely to be involved in accidents compared with normal cars

Of course white van man is not the only stereotype on British roads, there is also "Mondeo man" - an average middle earning person who wants a nice simple life and drives a pretty normal car.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube