JOHN McDONNELL’s

self-confessed ‘embarrassing’ U-turn last week over George Osborne’s Budget surplus charter is not the first time the Shadow Chancellor has been left red-faced. When McDonnell made a failed bid for the party leadership in 2007, he pipped Michael Meacher to run as the token Loony Leftie by narrowly getting the most nominations. One was Labour MP Marsha Singh, who later denied signing McDonnell’s nomination form. An unresolved mystery as McDonnell’s men say the mix-up was nothing to do with him.