How McDonnell reversed his EU vitriol

SHADOW Chancellor John McDonnell has emerged as a champion of the European Union, urging backers to support the Remain campaign.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the hard-Left firebrand held wildly opposing views only a few years ago, claiming the EU was an undemocratic body dominated by big business which damaged working people and calling for it to be replaced with an alternative European model. His revolutionary vision is set out in Another World Is Possible: A Manifesto For 21st Century Socialism, a booklet he wrote in 2007 which is jarringly at odds with his latest position.

Only last month, he insisted: ‘I can’t see we can get a better deal than Remain and I would campaign for Remain.’ But in 2007, Mr McDonnell – in words which could have been penned by the staunchest Brexiteer – described the EU as ‘a regional arm of the globalisation project. Its unswerving adherence to liberal markets, deregulation and privatisation is to the detriment of working people…

‘The EU is a bureaucratic, largely undemocratic organisation with a largely powerless parliament.

‘And presently constituted, it cannot and will not serve the people of Europe.’

Mr McDonnell has recently held meetings with senior City figures, attempting to reassure them they have nothing to fear from Labour in power. Being seen as pro-Remain is essential to this strategy.

One, a director of a major bank who was unaware of Mr McDonnell’s past EU views, said: ‘He was so mild and convincing, he almost won me over.’