John McDonnell left red-faced after secret footage of him gloating about global financial crisis emerged
Shadow Chancellor said he had been waiting for the economic crisis for a generation and people should not 'waste' it
A SECRET tape has emerged of Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell celebrating the global financial crisis, saying he’d been “waiting for this for a generation”.
Jeremy Corbyn’s right hand man has been left red faced after the footage of him claiming to be a Marxist and welcoming the 2008 financial crash surfaced.
The video, posted on YouTube in March 2013, shows Mr McDonnell telling an audience not to “waste” the economic crisis and instead use it to explain that capitalism does not work.
In the footage he is filmed saying: “Look, I’m straight, I’m honest with people: I’m a Marxist.”
“This is a classic crisis of the economy — a classic capitalist crisis. I’ve been waiting for this for a generation.
He added: “For Christ’s sake don’t waste it, you know; let’s use this to explain to people this system based on greed and profit does not work.”
But speaking at Bloomberg alongside Mr Corbyn yesterday, Mr McDonnell insisted he was joking.
He said: “It was a joke. I also said ‘The bankers have done more to undermine capitalism than any of the Socialist Worker Party’s activities in the last 40 years’.
“I think it was taken as a joke, and if you listen to the tape, people fell about laughing as a result.”
A Labour source told the Telegraph: “The recession hit working and middle-class people hardest and it is telling that John considers their pain a necessary, even welcome, sacrifice.”
In public Mr McDonnell has pledged his economic policy is to balance the books but he has previously spoken about how the aim of the Labour Party under him and Mr Corbyn is to bring down capitalism.