Chris Leslie is no substitute for John McDonnell on Question Time

On Thursday night, John McDonnell had to pull out of an appearance on Question Time — alongside David Gauke, Tim Farron, Mariana Mazzucato and John Timpson — after coming down with the flu. Happily, his Labour comrade Chris Leslie — a former shadow chancellor — was on hand to step up to the plate at the last minute and take the vacant spot.

Here's this week's full #BBCQT panel – join us at 10.45pm this Thursday, BBC One@DavidGauke @johnmcdonnellMP @timfarron @MazzucatoM pic.twitter.com/Mak9hu5Eun

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) November 23, 2016

So, surely John McDonnell and his team were just delighted that Labour was still represented on the primetime show? Well, perhaps not. Mr S was intrigued to spy the social media activity of the shadow chancellor’s head of communications James Mills — who was previously linked to the leaking of a list of Labour MPs accused of abusing Corbyn. As the show aired, Mills retweeted a comment from Iain Dale, in which the radio host claimed he wanted to slit his wrists thanks to the panel being ‘about as inspiring as most of the audience’.

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