Appointing John McDonnell as his Shadow Chancellor made Jeremy Corbyn’s first few days as Labour leader much harder than they needed to be. This was mainly because the Hayes and Harlington MP made some deeply distasteful comments about the ‘bravery’ of the IRA.
In 2003, McDonnell told a gathering to commemorate IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands:
The most serious part of this week’s PMQs was when the DUP’s Nigel Dodds raised the comments, and David Cameron branded them as ‘shameful’. No Labour MP was prepared to support them – and McDonnell’s lack of friends in his own party didn’t help with that, either. So it was inevitable that the Shadow Chancellor would feel he should apologise for the comments, which he has just done on tonight’s Question Time.‘It’s about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. ‘It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.’
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