John McDonnell's last stand

New Statesman

Left

High Factuality

John McDonnell's last stand

In the Labour left’s wilderness years, it was John McDonnell who saved the faction from oblivion. “I know how angry many of you are, but I would ask you to stay in the party and fight,” he wrote in a letter to supporters after failing to make the 2007 Labour leadership ballot. “Don’t mourn, organise.” Over the years, as chair of the Socialist Campaign Group – the faction founded by supporters of Tony Benn in 1982 – McDonnell did just that. Then,…