Fury as McDonnell puts IRA ‘martyrs’ plaque in his office
JOHN McDonnell was facing a furious backlash last night over a plaque paying tribute to IRA prisoners who died on hunger strike that is hanging in his office.
The memorial is to ten Republican terrorists – including Bobby Sands and convicted murderer Francis Hughes.
It lists the names of the so- called ‘H-Block Martyrs’, who died while on hunger strike in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles in 1981.
Mr McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, was presented with the plaque in 2004 by former IRA terrorist Gerry Kelly. A picture emerged yesterday of Mr McDonnell receiving the plaque from Kelly.
Tory MP Andrew Percy said that the decision to display the plaque was typical of a ‘ man who chose to side with IRA terrorists over British soldiers during the Troubles’.
He added: ‘ It shows his casual approach to violence. It is worrying to think that this is the man who wants to occupy the second highest office in the land.’
Former Cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, whose wife was permanently paralysed in the 1984 Brighton bomb, said Mr McDonnell had been ‘caught out again’.
He said: ‘It only confirms the closeness of IRA killers with some parts of the Labour Party. He has been a regular one being caught out with friendly gestures of one kind or another to IRA killers.’
Asked if Mr McDonnell should remove the plaque, Lord Tebbit said: ‘I think I know where I would like to put it up.’
The fact that the plaque hangs in Mr McDonnell’s office emerged from an interview with the Financial Times. Kelly was given two life sentences plus 20 years for bomb attacks on the Old Bailey and Whitehall that killed one and injured 200.
Other terrorists named on the list included Francis Hughes, who was jailed for murdering a 23-year-old British paratrooper and seriously wounding another, and was suspected of involvement in 11 other killings.
The plaque will reinforce criticisms of the hard-Left Shadow Chancellor – who lists ‘fermenting (sic) the overthrow of capitalism’ in his Who’s Who entry – and his close ties with Republican terrorists. Mr McDonnell told the paper: ‘I’ve always honestly and openly said I believe in a united Ireland, but the point was to try and get to a united Ireland without the violence.’
He has faced repeated demands to apologise for praising Republican movements since being promoted to the front bench under Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking in 2003 he said: ‘It’s about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.’ In 2015 he apologised ‘from the bottom of my heart’ for his remarks – but added that he wanted the terrorists to ‘stand down with dignity’.
He told Channel 4 News: ‘Some of us had to go out there – I might not have chosen the right words – and actually explain to them [IRA terrorists] they could stand down with dignity.’
Sands, an IRA member jailed for firearms possession, was the first to go on hunger strike and died in May 1981. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to compromise over the terrorists’ demands and became the IRA’s top assassination target.
A spokesman for Mr McDonnell said: ‘This was a gift to John for his work in promoting peaceful protests aimed at bringing both sides together during the troubles. It merely commemorates the peaceful protest in prison, not the prior actions of those involved.’
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