John McDonnell refuses to apologise for claims that Grenfell Tower victims were MURDERED by politicians’ decisions
The Shadow Chancellor has drawn fury for his shocking claims about the deadly fire
JOHN MCDONNELL today repeated shocking claims that the victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster were victims of murder.
The Shadow Chancellor refused to apologise for his accusation that politicians are directly responsible for the deaths of at least 80 people.
The hard-left MP said that the tragedy was the result of "social murder" which resulted from "political decisions over the years".
Mr McDonnell initially made his "murder" claims during a talk at Glastonbury - drawing a backlash from critics who said he risked inflaming community tensions.
Asked if he regrets the accusation, the Shadow Chancellor told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: "No I don't regret that, I was extremely angry at went on - I'm a West London MP, this site is not far from me.
"There's a long history in this country of the concept of 'social murder', where decisions are made with no regard to the consequences.
"That's what's happened here, and I'm angry about that. I believe social murder has occurred in this instance, and I believe people should be held to account for that."
He added that political leaders "need to be held to account" for the alleged under-funding of local councils which may have undermined safety regulations.
The idea of "social murder" was promoted by Friedrich Engels, who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx in the 19th century.
Chancellor Philip Hammond reacted with fury, telling the show: "It's a disgraceful suggestion, in line with many other things John McDonnell has said over the years."
Despite doubling down on his comments today, Mr McDonnell has privately apologised for them - The Sun revealed that he admitted to "getting carried away" when he spoke at Glastonbury.
Labour figures today refused to back up Mr McDonnell - asked about his remarks, Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said repeatedly: "I haven't spoken to John about that."
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said it was part of the new politics being driven by the hard-left Momentum group that supports Mr Corbyn.
He told The Sun: “It’s quite appalling really that he goes on doing this. But it’s their game - it’s the way that Momentum works, which is you take everything to the extremes, you whip up hatred, you whip up the marches - Momentum are a party within a party now.
“They support Corbyn and McDonnell and they’re taking over the Labour party. I can’t remember politics being as violent or angry as this.
“This is what they do - they’re looking for revolution.”
During his interview this morning, Mr McDonnell suggested that he wanted to treble the rise in public-sector pay despite warnings it could bankrupt the state.
He told Andrew Marr: "We will end the pay cap, we'll set aside £4billion by the end of the Parliament to do that.
"It would certainly match inflation, and some review bodies will try to compensate for some of the losses over the past few years."
Public-sector pay is currently restricted to a rise of 1 per cent per year, while inflation is nearly 3 per cent.
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies says it would cost the Government an extra £9billion every year to raise public-sector pay in line with the growing economy.
Mr McDonnell also addressed Labour's "ambition" to scrap the debts incurred by graduates who had to pay tuition fees at university.
He refused to reveal how the party would be able to abolish the debt, saying only: "We'll look at what we can do, it's a real ambition that we've got."
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It would cost around £100billion to cancel the debts owed by university graduates.
In a bizarre outburst, the Shadow Chancellor demanded the Government should "stand down" and let themselves be replaced by Labour - even though Jeremy Corbyn's party would not command a Commons majority.
