John McDonnell is going to Davos with “a warning for the global elite”

John McDonnell is “going to Davos with a warning for the global elite” – that they stand in the way of change at their own risk.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, who is attending the annual summit alongside Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump, as well as the world’s richest people, will tell them “they should be worried” that billions of people are becoming fed up with the status quo.

“Just as Davos faces the risk of an avalanche this week, growth for a few risks a political and social avalanche unless there is fundamental change to our rigged economic system,” McDonnell said today. “In the depths of a recession people focus on getting by. But when they are told things are getting better and see no evidence of it in their own lives, they begin to demand real change.”

The avowed anti-capitalist will warn that unless the current system is “radically changed and its rules rewritten, people are not going to put up with it”.

McDonnell said: “To achieve that, we must launch a global drive against tax dodging and financial secrecy, for democratic control over our economy and to protect our planet.

“The Davos few have hoarded power and wealth and failed the many. If they stand in the way of the change that’s needed, they risk raising the price they pay. Change is coming either way.”

His warning comes just a couple of months after party leader Jeremy Corbyn told Morgan Stanley “they are right” to see the party as a threat. Earlier in the autumn, McDonnell had been “war game-planning” for scenarios including a run on the pound, so Labour would know what to do “when, or if, they come for us”.

Shadow City minister Jonathan Reynolds has struck a more conciliatory tone, however, telling City AM in December he was actively seeking a meeting with one of the bank’s senior executives.