John McDonnell joked about assassinating Thatcher four years after saying sorry for the tasteless joke
Tory MPs want another apology from the Shadow Chancellor after footage emerged of him saying he wanted to sue an author for stealing his idea
JOHN McDonnell is facing a backlash after footage has emerged of him joking about wanting to assassinate Margaret Thatcher – four years after he apologised for first making the tasteless comment.
When standing for the Labour leadership in 2010 he caused outrage during a broadcast of the BBC Radio 4 show Any Questions - when he said if he could travel back in time to make the world a better place he would go back to the 1980s and kill Margaret Thatcher.
He apologised after both Conservative and Labour MPs condemned his comments.
But footage has now come to light from September 2014 showing Mr McDonnell not being apologetic at all and instead continuing to joke about it.
On the day The Guardian published a highly controversial short story by Hilary Mantel called The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Mr McDonnell was filmed talking about it at a conference.
He joked that he wanted to sue the Wolf Hall author for stealing his idea.
Mr McDonnell said: “I got into trouble once when I was on Any Questions and I was asked a question about Ashes To Ashes, that programme that was on TV about people going back in time.
“They asked me ‘if you could go back in time what act would you do?’
“And I said I’d go back and most probably - I wanted to say section Thatcher but I said assassinate Thatcher.
“And I’m not joking, this was in Wales, the Any Questions was, and the audience got up and I literally got the biggest applause I’ve had in my life.
“They had to quieten them down before they could broadcast again.
“I was on a phone-in later and some colonel from Surrey phoned up and I thought he was having a coronary.
“I said: ‘Look, I’m really sorry if I’ve upset you in that way.’
“But there was massive support for actually assassinating Margaret Thatcher.
“So what’s interesting is that Hilary Mantel is most probably going to make a fortune from this book.
“I’m going to sue her on copyright grounds.”
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The 2014 clip, published on the blog, shows Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, laughing at Mr McDonnell’s comment.
Tories are now calling for him to issue another apology and have called him “unfit” for any position of power.
Lord Tebbit, whose wife was paralysed in the IRA Brighton bomb attack in 1984 which targeted Mrs Thatcher, told the footage proved the original apology was hollow – and that the Labour Party was the true “nasty party”.
He said: “We know that when he apologises he does not mean it.
“I have no time for Mr McDonnell in any way, and I hope that when Theresa May looks across the despatch box she will realise that the nasty party is the one in front of her and not behind.”
North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen said: “He is showing himself to be completely unfit for opposition let alone power.
“He should apologise immediately.
“Saying that about someone who gave up so much of their career and energy to serving this country is completely beyond the pale.
“His views have no place in our democracy."
And the Tory MP for North East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg, told : “The hard Left may espouse political correctness but its view that the end justifies the means has always given it a potentially violent edge.
“The problem with John McDonnell's humour is that he may, just, believe it."
The footage is not Labour's only problem today as an ICM poll gives Tories a 16-point lead over Labour.
While the Tories are up four points on the ICM poll two weeks ago, to 43%, Labour are down two points at 27%.
These figures have not been seen since October 2009, in the final months of Gordon Brown's time as Prime Minister.
On the BBC programme Question Time last year, after becoming Shadow Chancellor, Mr McDonnell again apologised for joking about assassinating Margaret Thatcher.
He said: “It was an appalling joke.
“It’s ended my career in stand-up, let’s put it that way, and I apologise for it as well.”
He also apologised for claiming the IRA should be honoured for their campaign of terror.