An adviser to John McDonnell has confirmed Labour is planning for run on pound, capital flight

An adviser to John McDonnell has admitted Labour is planning for a run on the pound and capital flight should a Jeremy Corbyn-led government come into power.

Richard Barbrook, university lecturer and games strategist for the shadow chancellor, told socialist magazine The Clarion the team was thinking about “the obvious problems which might face a radical Labour government, such as capital flight or a run on the pound”

He added: “Labour needs to plan for potential crises precisely because we know there are lots of risks ahead.”

This backs up comments made during the Labour party conference McDonnell revealed that Labour was carrying out “war game-type scenario planning” for a run on the pound, although he later rowed back on those claims.

At the time it was revealed that Class Wargames, which describes itself as “an avant-garde movement of artists, activists and theoreticians engaged in the production of works of ludic subversion in the bureaucratic society of controlled consumption”, was behind the planning. Barbrook is a founding member of the group.

Liz Truss MP, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “Labour crashed our economy the last time and admit they would risk doing it all over again.

“John McDonnell must come clean on Labour’s secret preparations for an economic crash and the price working people would pay with higher taxes and fewer jobs.

“The Conservatives will continue to take the balanced approach our economy needs to ensure our future security and prosperity.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last autumn ruffled feathers in the City by telling Morgan Stanley the bank was right to view him as a “threat”. However, a few weeks later frontbencher and shadow City minister Jonathan Reynolds revealed he was seeking a meeting with the bank.