Hackney MP Diane Abbott went on Radio 4 on Tuesday morning in a bid to rectify the damage caused by news that a civil war had broken out among Labour MPs after the leadership reversed its position on the government’s fiscal charter.
A bemused John Humphrys provoked laughter from Abbott as she attempted to dispel the view that Labour’s chancellor John McDonnell believes “the deficit can go hang”, after it emerged he does not support the government’s plans to balance the budget after investment spending is taken into account.
Quizzed further on the tension in the room at the Parliamentary Labour Party’s discussion of the move, Abbott said: “I suspect my colleagues on reflection will calm down and devote their energies to attacking Osborne and his mismanagement of the economy.”
She later added that “some people are only slowly coming to terms with the fact that Jeremy [Corbyn] won” the Labour leadership election, asserting that “once they’ve come to terms with it, then they’ll be happy.”
Uhuh.
Image Credit – Diane Abbott, May 2012 by Policy Exchange
