McDonnell blasted for treating Corbyn ‘like a puppet’ over Scots independence
You’ll lose Election if you ignore English, says ex-Minister ...as gleeful Tories post image of leader in Sturgeon’s top pocket
JOHN McDONNELL has been accused of treating Jeremy Corbyn ‘like a puppet’ amid claims he failed to warn the Labour leader the party would not block a second Scottish independence referendum.
Party sources say the Shadow Chancellor went ‘rogue’ and ‘blindsided’ Mr Corbyn by declaring a Labour government would not stop Scottish nationalists from holding another breakaway poll.
The bombshell announcement has sparked a civil war within the party, with Labour MP Graham Jones telling The Mail on Sunday that he would vote against any ‘dirty deals’ with the SNP to damage the Union – even if that ‘kept
‘McDonnell isn’t running the show yet’
Labour out of power’. Ex-Labour Cabinet Minister John Denham, writing in The Mail on Sunday, said the party would have to appeal to English voters by offering an ‘English’ General Election manifesto to defuse Tory claims that a minority Labour government would be at the beck and call of the SNP.
But last night, the row deepened with sources claiming Mr McDonnell had given Mr Corbyn no warning of the referendum policy shift – despite his insisting the Labour leader held the same position.
A senior Labour MP said: ‘Corbyn didn’t know what McDonnell was going to say and nor did his office.
‘They were completely blindsided by John going rogue and making the headlines.’ The MP, an ally of Mr Corbyn, also took offence at Mr McDonnell’s claim last week that if Boris Johnson refused to quit after losing a no-confidence vote, ‘I would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to Buckingham Palace to say we’re taking over’.
The MP added: ‘He may be one of Corbyn’s oldest allies but he can’t treat the party leader like a puppet. McDonnell isn’t running the show yet.’
The row broke amid complaints from Shadow Cabinet members that Mr Corbyn’s office had failed to organise an August offensive against the Tories, with Mr Corbyn now on holiday in Romania. Allies of Mr McDonnell have sprung to his defence, saying he at least was putting in a ‘summer shift’.
They also insisted he was trying to ‘neutralise’ SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s trump card of another independence referendum.
However, his remarks, made at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, infuriated Labour’s Scottish Party.
Ex- Gordon Brown spin doctor Charlie Whelan tweeted: ‘What on earth is McDonnell doing? As if Scottish Labour hasn’t got enough problems. Might as well give up on next Election now.’ But English Labour MPs said it was also a disaster for the party south of the border as it would allow the Tories to repeat their 2015 Election warnings that a weak Labour government would be propped up by SNP votes.
Right on cue, the Tories mocked up an image of Mr Corbyn nestling in Ms Sturgeon’s top pocket.
Mr McDonnell could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Sources close to Mr Corbyn’s office said they understood that t he Shadow Chancellor’s comments were ‘off the cuff – not a planned intervention’.