Although John McDonnell has been busy of late helping fight off the Labour coup, he was able to find time this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the rate-capping rebellion of the eighties. The Shadow Chancellor joined forces with Ted Knight — the former leader of Lambeth council who once warned ‘no compromise with the electorate’ — to reminisce about the patch of history which saw the group earn the tabloid title ‘the loony left’.
Speaking at Clapham library in front of a crowd of Momentum activists — who regularly referred to the Labour MPs behind the no confidence vote in Corbyn as the ‘172 Judas Iscariots’ — McDonnell talked about his time as the GLC’s finance committee chairman. Back then, he was one of several figures who retaliated to Thatcher imposing caps on town hall spending by rallying supporters to oppose the caps and carry on spending regardless.
Although his antics resulted in Ken Livingstone sacking him in 1985 so as to avoid financial ruin, it turns out that McDonnell sees that period of history as pretty rosy.
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