John McDonnell rubbishes idea of deselecting Labour MPs

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has rubbished the idea that Labour MPs will be deselected for voting against Jeremy Corbyn’s party line in the House of Commons.

Following the vote on airstrikes in Syria, anti-war activists called for the 66 Labour MPs who voted with the government, including Yvette Cooper, Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna, to be deselected.

But in an exclusive interview with Holyrood magazine, the shadow chancellor rejected the idea of deselecting MPs that vote against the party, saying the rise in party membership has caused a “culture shock” and that, “we just want to make sure there is a smooth path from being a centralised hierarchical party to a social movement”.

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McDonnell said negative media briefings are the result of a small number of people who are struggling to adapt to the new leadership’s style.

Speaking to Holyrood editor Mandy Rhodes, McDonnell said: “People in the PLP are faced with this very different movement and where there might have been 20 or 30 people turning up at a local constituency meeting, it is now 70, 80 or a 100 and local membership has increased from 400 to 1000 or even quadrupled that. It is a culture shock and that is something that some have embraced and for others, it is a struggle.

“I keep saying to Jeremy that our job is to help smooth that path which is why all this stuff about deselection is just rubbish. We are not doing deselection or reselection, we just want to make sure there is a smooth path from being a centralised hierarchical party to a social movement and that is what we are doing. In the meantime, you will have people going to the media saying there are plots and so on but that’s not the case.

 “We are talking about a small number who are having a hard time coming to terms with it and I know there have been lots of reports about PLP meetings being really rough and all that but they haven’t been that rough. I did my thing on the economy the other Monday and had rounds of applause and all the rest of it although not sure if I would after the Mao incident. That was my last joke, honestly.”

He added: “The problem we have at the moment – that we will get through – is that it is a huge culture shock for the members of the PLP that all of a sudden we have a mass membership that is growing all the time and we are moving towards being more of a social movement than a traditional political party.”

McDonndell also hits out at the way the media has treated Corbyn, saying: “We have never seen a media assault like this in our history”.  

Read the full interview with the shadow chancellor in Holyrood on Monday.