UK's Corbyn appoints long-time ally and fellow left-winger as Chancellor of Shadow Cabinet
Following on from Corbyn's landmark victory on Saturday comes the line-up of his Shadow Cabinet
- The appointment of the veteran left winger John McDonnell as shadow chancellor will be controversial among many Labour MPs.
- Mr
McDonnell, who wants to nationalise the banks, recently declared he
would "swim through vomit" to vote against
benefit cuts in defiance of
his own party line, and once said he wanted to assassinate Margaret
Thatcher ( you can be the judge of the rights and wrongs of that one!)
- BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says the logic of John McDonnell's
appointment is to build an anti-austerity platform, but it is "a very
big risk". She says there have been concerns within Labour about the
impact it could have - and that he was warned to avoid giving
his campaign manager a job
- BBC economics editor Robert Peston has this to say
- Shortly before the announcement of his new job on Sunday
night, Mr McDonnell told a rally at the annual trade union conference in
Brighton that he had been "campaigning for the nationalisation of the
banks" for years - only for it to partially come true after the credit
crunch. "They are jokers, these bankers".
- This
echoed his promise over the summer that a Corbyn government would
nationalise industries, such as the railways and energy firms, without
giving any compensation.
- "Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of
governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers'
pockets will be brought to an abrupt end"
- "Let's
also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to
make a fast buck at the taxpayers' expense that if any of these assets
are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour
government will reserve the right to bring them back into public
ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation
deducted from any compensation for renationalisation."
- Meanwhile
11 front bench Labour lawmakers have now resigned in the aftermath of
Corbyn's historic victory, one even as the new leader was making his
acceptance speech
Like this article ? Come Share :
Posts
