John McDonnell dismisses report of civil war at top of Labour
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has denied a report of a civil war at the top of his party over the power of leader Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers.
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McDonnell and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott confronted Corbyn and demanded he stop listening to his two top aides and back a second referendum, according to the Sunday Times.
But on the Andrew Marr show this morning, McDonnell called the report “rubbish” and “myth”.
“I’ve not told anyone to be sacked or anything like that,” he said.
When asked if he had confidence in Corbyn’s spin doctor Seumas Milne and office chief Karie Murphy, the two aides in question, McDonnell said: “Of course I do.”
McDonnell said: “What happens in July in parliament, journalists, the lobby, stagger from reception to reception drinking some of the most nauseating wine.”
“What then happens, they exaggerate and they invent stories and that’s what’s happened here,” he said.
Abbott told friends that Corbyn’s aides Milne and Murphy are “keeping him captive”, according to the Sunday Times.
McDonnell said, however: “I don’t believe that’s what Diane Abbott has said”.
The denial came as the Labour party was once again engulfed in a row over antisemitism and bullying.
Labour’s former head of disputes Sam Matthews had a letter sent to him by the party’s lawyers, Carter Ruck, saying he may face legal action for breaching a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Matthews was one of a number of former Labour staffers who spoke to the BBC for a Panorama programme on antisemitism in the party.
McDonnell said he would outlaw non-disclosure agreements, a legal agreement that prevents signees from revealing certain things in public.
Yet he defended his party’s use of lawyers to enforce NDAs. “What’s happened is the Labour party’s reminding them of their confidentiality agreement,” he said.
The shadow chancellor also renewed his calls for there to be a second referendum to try to break the Brexit deadlock.
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“I would vote remain and I would campaign for remain as well,” he said.