McDonnell faces ridicule over his ‘new British Rail’
JOHN McDonnell has been accused of a ‘ back- to- the- future’ plan to return Britain to rail chaos after the Shadow Chancellor praised British Rail’s record.
He saluted the old nationalised network’s performance as he unveiled proposals to return the railways and other vital services ‘irreversibly’ to public ownership.
Mr McDonnell said: ‘The latest research has demonstrated that, in comparison with the investment levels that went in across Europe, British Rail was relatively quite efficient.’
But his claims sparked ridicule last night, with even some Labour MPs privately mocking the idea that BR offered a good service.
Tory MP Steve Double, who sits on the Commons Transport Committee, said: ‘Labour wants to drag Britain to the grim old days of rail chaos, dirty trains and inedible BR sandwiches with the ends curling up.
‘ Labour’s back- t o - t he- f ut ur e agenda would be an unmitigated disaster for the travelling public.’
Mr McDonnell made clear that Labour was not seeking to resurrect BR-style management, saying: ‘We’d do it in a different way now. We could be more efficient than some of the privatisation that’s gone on in recent years in rail.’ He also claimed that renationalising
‘The grim old days of rail chaos and dirty trains’
the railways and water and energy industries would be ‘cost-free’. This is despite expert predictions that buying back the water industry alone would cost £90 billion.
However, the Shadow Chancellor insisted it would be cost-neutral because it involved returning profitable assets to public ownership.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday that climate change means the UK must take back control of energy firms: ‘We can put Britain at the forefront of the wave of change across the world in favour of public, democratic ownership and control of our services and utilities.’
But Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss warned: ‘Labour’s renationalisation plan will cost taxpayers billions and lead to worse services.’
Employers’ organisation the CBI also said Labour’s plan ‘would wind the clock back on our economy’.
The row broke as Ministers unveiled new measures to prevent millions getting into financial difficulty through unfair energy bills.
They are considering changing the law to allow information to be shared between public authorities and energy supplies to identify customers on state benefits who are at risk of fuel poverty.
The vulnerable customers would be moved automatically on to a special ‘safeguard’ tariff set by energy watchdog Ofgem under plans to go out to consultation tomorrow.
STANDING in the shadows behind the avuncular figure of Jeremy Corbyn is the steely Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell. Sometimes Mr McDonnell emerges for a moment into the light, and we should not ignore his warnings of what a Corbyn government would really be like.
Yesterday he promised a return to the discredited days of nationalisation, and pledged that this time it would be irreversible. He then claimed that taking railways, water and energy services back into public ownership could be achieved at no cost to the taxpayer by swapping government bonds for company shares.
He asserted bizarrely that it would be ‘cost-free’, as the profits would cover the borrowing costs, the motto of the dodgy trickster down all the ages. Others, more realistic, have estimated that it could cost up to £90 billion.
It took our political class many years of overspending, inflation and IMF interventions to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The bill always arrives in the end, and it is always the striving classes who have to pay it.