McDonnell: No apology for McVey lynching comments
JOHN McDonnell has refused to apologise for repeating calls for a Tory Cabinet Minister to be lynched.
The Shadow Chancellor said in 2014 that some Liverpool activists questioned why Labour did not back the “lynching” of Esther McVey.
He later called Ms McVey, now Work and Pensions Secretary, “a stain on humanity”.
Mr McDonnell was asked on BBC TV’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday whether he was quoting “approvingly”. He replied: “Of course I wasn’t.” When asked if he would apologise, he added: “It is for those people who made that statement if they wish to make that apology. I don’t support this. I wish harm to nobody.” Labour MP Jess Phillips has called his comments “utterly despicable”, while Tory minister Andrea Leadsom described them as “truly evil”.