McDonnell says McVey slur was just ‘comedy’
There was a whole group in the audience that kicked off... they were arguing, “Why are [we] sacking her? Why aren’t we lynching the b******?” What John McDonnell about a meeting in Liverpool in 2014
JOHN McDonnell yesterday refused to apologise for repeating a vicious joke about Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.
The shadow chancellor was accused of having quoted activists ‘approvingly’ who suggested that Miss McVey should be ‘lynched’.
Last week a Cabinet minister called the remarks ‘utterly disgusting’.
But confronted by Andrew Marr over the comments yesterday, Mr McDonnell claimed it was a ‘stand-up’ comedy event and he had retold the story to prove how ‘rough’ politics is in Liverpool.
In 2014, the hard-Left politician spoke about a visit to Miss McVey’s former Merseyside constituency, where she faced a major union-backed campaign to oust her from the marginal seat.
To laughter, Mr McDonnell said: ‘I was up in Liverpool a fortnight ago where Alec McFadden, one of our [union] organisers, launched the Sack Esther McVey Day on her birthday.
‘I spoke at a packed public meeting. There was a whole group in the audience that completely kicked off, quite critical of the whole concept, because they were arguing, “Why are [we] sacking her? Why aren’t we lynching the b******?” ’ A recording of the event was made public for the first time last week.
In an interview on his BBC1 show yesterday, Mr Marr asked the shadow chancellor whether he wanted to hear it, saying: ‘Well, the problem is that the audio has now become available of that meeting, and people think that you weren’t simply quoting people, as you’ve always said, you were quoting somebody else, but that you were somehow quoting them approvingly.’
Mr McDonnell replied: ‘ No, I don’t. You don’t need to, I know exactly what was on it.’
He added: ‘It was a stand-up thing and I was saying, look this is how rough politics is up there and it’s ridiculous.
‘A couple of weeks later, in Parliament, I got up and made a statement and said, “Of course I don’t agree with that”. I don’t wish harm to anybody and I refuted it completely.’ Mr Marr then asked whether the shadow chancellor now wanted to apologise to Miss McVey, ‘if she was upset, as she would have been by what was said?’
But Mr McDonnell refused, and instead criticised Government policies over the disabled.
James Cleverly MP, the Conservative Party deputy chairman, said last night: ‘John McDonnell has demonstrated yet again why Labour are not fit to govern.
‘In the course of a single interview, we see Labour have no plan for Brexit, won’t say what their reckless renationalisation scheme would cost taxpayers, and despite promising “kinder, gentler politics”, the shadow chancellor has today repeatedly refused to apologise for sickening abuse.’
Miss McVey, a former GMTV presenter, lost her Wirral West seat in 2015 after she was targeted by hard-Left activists, but returned to Parliament last year after winning George Osborne’s old seat of Tatton.
On Saturday it was revealed that union officials and Labour councillors are plotting a fresh campaign of intimidation against her.
One of those who was reported to have been helping to coordinate abuse of Miss McVey is a Labour member with links to the shadow chancellor.
After the recording of Mr McDonnell’s remarks became public last week, they were criticised by Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom.
She wrote on Twitter: ‘This is truly evil. Utterly disgusting. The laughter about launching a campaign against Esther McVey on her birthday, and then the guffaws about killing her. Seriously? Is this Jeremy Corbyn’s kinder, gentler politics? This has to stop.’
Mr Corbyn was pressed to criticise Mr McDonnell’s comments last week but refused.
When Miss McVey, 50, was appointed to her new job, she was singled out for abuse by a Leftwing hate mob on Twitter, who branded her a murderess and a witch, among other insults.
‘This is how rough politics is’
It was a stand-up thing and I was saying, look this is how rough politics is up there and it’s ridiculous... What he said yesterday