McDonnell: We’ll tell the Queen we’re taking over
He says he’ll put Corbyn in a cab to palace if Boris loses power
Labour would ‘take over’ if boris Johnson refused to quit after losing a confidence vote, John McDonnell said yesterday.
The Shadow Chancellor said he would send Jeremy Corbyn to tell the Queen he was ready to be prime minister.
‘I don’t want to drag the Queen into this but I would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to buckingham Palace to say, “we’re taking over”,’ he said.
The remarks, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, came a day after he was accused of mounting a sinister bid to ‘silence’ opponents when he appeared to suggest Labour would put political opponents on trial.
His latest comments sparked further fury last night, with David Starkey saying the threat was tantamount to a ‘coup’.
‘I’m afraid Mr Corbyn would be arrested,’ the historian told The Daily Telegraph. ‘The disguise has come off John McDonnell – he’s a revolutionary communist.’ Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the plot smacked of the Labour frontbench’s attitude to the royal Family.
He said: ‘They don’t believe in her or the constitution. They will effectively arrive toting their guns. It’s basically a coup.’
Earlier this week, rebel Tory MPs said they would urge the Queen to sack Mr Johnson if he defied calls to make way after the loss of any confidence vote.
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who is leading efforts to prevent No Deal, described the idea of Mr Johnson clinging on as ‘breathtaking, stupid and infantile’.
under the Fixed-Term Parliaments act, there is a 14-day period after the loss of a confidence vote. If no one else gains the confidence of the Commons during this time, there is a general election.
but some believe Mr Johnson has no legal obligation to quit, and could stay to ensure any election was held after brexit on october 31 – preventing attempts to scupper No Deal.
In an earlier interview, the Shadow Chancellor said he ‘might want to invent’ a law to lock up Conservative MPs he has branded ‘social criminals’ for cutting benefits.
a source close to Mr McDonnell pointed out he was speaking ‘at Edinburgh festival where no speech should be without a joke’.
but Treasury minister Simon Clarke said: ‘These are not the comments of a man fit to be Chancellor – or to hold any office – in a Western democracy. a blatant affront to the rule of law.’ Ian austin, an MP who left Labour this year, said: ‘Can you imagine any senior Labour figure of the past threatening to lock up Tory MPs for voting for laws they didn’t like? What would people like McDonnell call right-wing politicians who send opponents to prison? These people are extremists.’
Mr McDonnell was being quizzed by broadcaster Iain Dale over comments he made in September 2011 at a ‘unite the resistance’ conference in which he called Tory MPs ‘social criminals’.
The MP said he wanted to be ‘in a situation where no Tory MP can show their face in public without being challenged by direct action’, adding: ‘They are social criminals and I warn you, we will try them.’ asked whether he could really ‘try’ politicians in a court of law, Mr McDonnell said: ‘I wouldn’t mind it actually.’ He added that he ‘might want to invent’ a law to allow such prosecutions.
Shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis yesterday called for a general strike over climate change – despite britain having reduced emissions faster than any other G20 country. The proposed date is September 20, weeks after school summer holidays end.
‘They will arrive toting their guns’