John McDonnell’s mask is slipping

One of the more interesting developments over the last year is the attempted transformation of John McDonnell from a hard-left activist who joked about “lynching” a female Conservative MP, towards a softer, more jovial, chancellor-in-waiting. It seemed to be going quite well. I appeared with McDonnell on Politics Live last year and he laughed heartily as I teased him about coveting the Labour leadership. SW1’s water-cooler chat is that McDonnell is a far more effective advocate of a Corbynite Labour position than Jeremy Corbyn himself, particularly because the Labour leader often looks so irritated at being asked relatively normal questions on television. But could that be about to change?

The sheep’s clothing did seem to be pretty well strapped to the shadow chancellor’s body – all part of his calculated strategy of being a media-friendly face for Corbynite Labour. Yes, the Westminster Bubble knew about his wolf-like views but it wasn’t clear that these were affecting his new affable public image.