McDonnell stands by as activist rants: Theresa May should ‘SHOOT HERSELF’

LABOUR’S John McDonnell was accused last night of failing to condemn an activist’s call for Theresa May ‘to shoot herself’ over the Windrush scandal.

The Shadow Chancellor faced calls to explain why he did not immediately disown the abusive remark, made at a rally in London he was addressing.

Mr McDonnell was standing in the wings as Stand Up to Racism co-convenor Weyman Bennett attacked the Prime Minister over the Windrush scandal of Commonwealth migrants wrongly deported.

He said: ‘Our advice to her [the Prime Minister] is very, very simple advice: shoot yourself. And the reason why you should shoot yourself is because… we’ve have seen people lose their lives as a result of the Windrush scandal.

‘Who put the Windrush scandal in? It was Theresa May.’

The remark came days after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a ‘safe space’ for political debate after Remain MP Anna Soubry was confronted by protesters outside of Parliament and called a ‘Nazi’.

It also came after Mrs May called on Mr McDonnell to apologise for comments about ‘lynching’ the former Pensions Secretary Esther McVey four years ago. He has insisted that he was not indicating approval when he quoted a member of the public.

Former Labour acting leader Harriet Harman, who last week called for new measures to protect MPs from abuse, reacted with horror at yesterday’s ‘shoot herself’ remark.

She tweeted: ‘This is terrible. Freedom of political speech is essential in a democracy but that brings with it personal responsibility not to contribute to atmosphere of violence and threat to elected politicians.’

Tories demanded an apology from Mr McDonnell, accusing him of applauding the speech by Mr Bennett.

Tory chairman Brandon Lewis said: ‘In a week where we have seen politicians from all sides come together to condemn abusive behaviour towards politicians and journalists, to see the Shadow Chancellor applauding.

‘John McDonnell should apologise and condemn these words.’ Last night, a spokesman for Mr McDonnell said: ‘The Shadow Chancellor does not condone this language.’

Before he became Shadow Chancellor, Mr McDonnell sparked outrage in 2014 for repeating a comment that Ms McVey should be lynched.

To the fury of Ms McVey and fellow Tories, he has refused to apologise for the remark, insisting he was only quoting what someone else had said. He has also stressed that he was not inciting violence against the Tory MP.

Mr McDonnell said: ‘I spoke at a packed public meeting and there was a whole group in the audience that kicked off, quite critical of the whole concept, because they were arguing, “Why are we sacking her, why aren’t we lynching the b*****d’?”’

Ms McVey has said that the remark made her life ‘difficult and dangerous’ and claimed that it had led to her being followed.

Last night, Mr Bennett – a Socialist Party member – insisted that he had meant the ‘shoot herself’ advice ‘metaphotically’. He said he himself was from the Windrush generation.