Webchat with John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor, Friday 6 December at 12 midday

[AnnaCMumsnet]

We’re very pleased to announce a webchat with the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, this Friday 6 December at 12 midday.

John has been Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. Born in Liverpool, he studied at night school while working before going to university. He went on to work as a union official and in local government at the GLC and at Camden Council. He campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to win the Labour leadership in 2015 and has been Shadow Chancellor since then.

Labour’s economic plans have proved a talking point during this election; the manifesto includes plans for free nationalised broadband services, increases in NHS spending, an increase in the minimum wage, freezing the state pension age at 66, and a ‘Green New Deal’. John has said the plans will tackle rising living costs; the IFS has said that Labour’s spending plans don’t add up (it says the same about the Conservatives).

Labour’s pledge to compensate WASPI women with an average £15k payout has caused a huge amount of conversation on our sister site Gransnet, so we’ll be taking questions from GN on that (and other topics) too.

Please do join the chat on Friday at midday, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance. Please note John won’t be able to do the full hour because his time is pretty over-committed but we will detain him as long as we can!

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is overwhelmingly dominating a discussion with a guest, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. (We will be taking action on this, including suspending the accounts of MNers who continue to heckle after we've posted to ask people to stop, so please take note.) Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Thanks

Nope, that's a reply around tactical voting not policies! You and so many are about putting party before country (or world climate), you should be working together and getting the policies the climate really needs. Not good enough for my vote.

@Trewser

Hi John. Do you sometimes wish you were leader instead of Jeremy Corbyn? You come across pretty well on TV, and I say that as a New Labour Tony Blair fan.

You may not remember that I did stand to become leader of the Labour party over ten years ago and I was so popular I couldn't even get on the ballot paper. I got the message. Jeremy is exactly the right person we need for our party and to bring our country together.

@JohnMcDonnell - many thanks for responding to my question, and for coming on here.

When you say [re single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act] "One of the key issues is that it often requires investment to implement policies and we must ensure that all the public services and organisations involved have the resources to ensure an effective implementation."

Do you mean that there should be extra funding for separate services and spaces for those who identify as trans? I agree that this is a sensible way forward

Hi John
Just waiting to see what your thoughts on my question on your taxation policies for companies.

@KingBobra

Hi John,

I'm floating between Labour and Lib Dem. Struggling to muster enthusiasm for either, for a variety of reasons, though some have been touched on in previous questions above. Leaflets through the door from both parties have both been focused around "don't let the Conservatives win". Assuming I was never going to vote Conservative anyway, why should I vote Labour?

Three reasons:

1. We face the existential threat of climate change. Realistically, only Labour in government in this next period will give us a chance of tackling climate change. If we don't, our children and our grandchildren will never forgive us.
2. We have to end austerity because our public services, like the NHS and our schools and our police service, simply do not have the resources to provide us with the decent services we need.
3. If you saw the Despatches programme last week, which portrayed children, often hungry and cold, living in conditions which are simply unacceptable in our society, you will understand that we need real change to lift people out of poverty in this country, especially our children. That's what a Labour government will do.

and yet there is so much good. The neurodiversity manifesto is great - I was at the launch back in 2017 when I was CLP delegate, and as a fellow farmer I am relieved to hear about the land tax.

But the woman question.... twas ever so

Would you consider changing from the first past the post system?

"Realistically, only Labour in government in this next period will give us a chance of tackling climate change"
You keep saying this, but do you have anything to back up this opinion (not fact as you called it earlier)?

Do you mean that there should be extra funding for separate services and spaces for those who identify as trans? I agree that this is a sensible way forward

Yes, I think properly funded third spaces for transpeople are an excellent idea.

I appreciate you coming to chat to us John. However, by saying you will debate our rights to single sex spaces and by confirming that you will bring in self id despite hundreds of women telling you this is a bad idea, you have confirmed that Labour do not care about women's rights.

I cannot vote for you.

@AnnaCMumsnet

Question from Gransnet user Shortlegs

John, If you are successful in making it to government, what colour uniforms do you envisage your proletariat wearing? Personally the khaki doesn't suit me, I prefer the Boilersuit blue.

Forget the khaki and the boilersuits: we will have a thriving garment sector that will provide you with a wonderful array of colour that you can choose from (although mine's red).

@puppypower1

Your tax plans are not just for the "richest 5%" are they? Everyone will see prices and taxes rise as a result of your policies. Here's what the IFS said about your tax plans:

"On the tax side the proposals in the Labour manifesto represent an enormous increase in the amounts they want to raise from corporation tax. If their proposals did raise the sums they suggest then we would be raising more in corporation tax, as a fraction of national income, than any other country in the G7, and more than almost anywhere else in the OECD. This would clearly come with substantial risks. The truth is of course that in the end corporation tax is paid by workers, customers or shareholders so would affect many in the population. In the end, it is unlikely that one could raise the sums suggested by Labour from the tax policies they set out. If you want to transform the scale and scope of the state then you need to be clear that the tax increases required to do that will need to be widely shared rather than pretending that everything can be paid for by companies and the rich.

Stuart Adam, a senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “Labour claims its measures would raise £80 billion in 2023–24, with most of this coming from increasing taxes on companies and their shareholders. This would imply the UK raising more in corporation tax than any other G7 country. The biggest tax rise is an increase in corporation tax rates, which is unlikely to bring in as much revenue as Labour hopes, at least in the longer term. Increases in corporation tax would affect far more than the very rich: much of the burden would ultimately be felt by employees and customers.”

In our business we will make people redundant as a result of your business tax rises and we will have to increase prices in order to maintain a viable business. Why can't you be honest with people?

Very simple response. The same week that the IFS made this judgement the progressive economy forum comprising expert economists and also, earlier that week, 160 economists came out in support of our proposals. In fact the progressive economy forum argued that we had underestimated the amount that we could raise in our tax proposals. The 160 economists argued that our economic strategy was not just right for our economy but needed if we are to tackle the issues of lack of investment, low wages and insecure work plus being able to compete in the global economy. The IFS failed to take into account the structural changes that we have proposed in our economy and had as its main criticism that I was being overambitious. What I am proposing is ambitious but it's essential after our economy and society has been held back for nearly a decade by the austerity policies of the existing government.

I agree with specialist trans services - for health, for refuge, and in the S there have been some great results for trans wings in the men's prisons. In fact keeping the wing in the mens prison absolutely did away with many of the prison service's own fears - that unscrupulous offenders would 'claim' trans status in order to get what they thought was better treatment.

Agree, Tired. Also would like to point out that ignoring or sidestepping the questions makes me angrier. We're not stupid.

Thanks everyone for participating - this has been one of the best aspects of the election campaign. Really interesting questions and I hope the answers rose to the quality of the questions.

John, women fought for sex based rights for a long time. We've only really had most of them for about the last 50 years.

You seem to be suggesting on the basis that some males now want to make a land grab for those rights that women should lose most, if not all of them.

I really wanted to vote Labour and I've been clutching at straws ever since the manifesto came out for a reason to do so but this is a big nope from me.

Thanks John.
Good luck.

So where did NettleTea's original post go?

She was speaking of her real life experience and I thought it was very pertinent to this webchat.

Joh I like you as an individual politician but in answer to your question no your responses did not match up to the quality of the questions you were asked.

I also wonder why several of my responses are being deleted? I havent said anything that goes against the rules, nor inflammatory?

Thanks everyone for participating - that's our lot for this chat so we'll be closing it now.

Waves at John. Fingers crossed We will be waving you off next thursday too.

Thanks John
#CarbonZero2030

Thanks for coming on John but no, your answer did nothing to reassure me. I can't vote for your candidate.