McDonnell: Labour could take two years to recover credibility with voters

Last Updated: March 21, 2017By

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.

The shenanigans between Tom Watson, Unite and Momentum will not have helped, of course.

A huge part of the problem has nothing to do with Labour, though.

The simple fact is that elections aren’t won on the facts, but on what people are led to believe – and they are far-too-often led to believe whatever the Tory-owned mass media tell them.

So, for example, when the national debt was around 76 per cent of GDP in 2010, the Tory press told you it was a national crisis, Labour had no economic credibility and the only people who could restore the national balance sheet to health were Conservatives.

The Tories have been in office since 2010 and the national debt in 2015 was 89.2 per cent of GDP.

That’s right, the Conservatives have worsened the debt considerably – they always do.

What have you heard about it lately?

Well, if you were listening to Philip Hammond’s Budget speech, you’ll have heard him say the economy is ticking along just fine, thanks to Tory cuts. It’s complete and utter nonsense.

Labour always has to come in and clean up after the Tories have messed up the nation’s finances. Tories like to put the public sector into debt because it means the money goes into the hands of the richest private businesspeople.

But you don’t get to hear that. Your Tory-run mass media don’t tell you the facts – they feed you an illusion propagated by the Party.

It’s like a magic trick – sleight of hand. They haven’t improved anything – they’ve just distracted your attention.

Perhaps we should refer to them by a more appropriate title, then – the same title given to the kind of people who perform those magic tricks:

Illusionists.

The Labour party could take another two years to rebuild its credibility with the electorate, the shadow chancellor as said.

John McDonnell told the i newspaper that the media had not given his party a “fair hearing” but that it would get its message over by “word of mouth”.

He blamed the economic crash of 2007 for the party’s woes and said he had been punished for being in power at the time.

“Right across Europe, whoever was in power then was blamed for that economic crash, and Labour has never recovered.

“We have been consistently about 20 points behind in economic credibility in the polls since then.”

Mr McDonnell, who is a longtime ally of party leader Jeremy Corbyn, admitted that the party had made no progress in turning around voters’ view of it since the general election.

Source: Labour could take two years to recover credibility with voters, John McDonnell says

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7 Comments

  1. joanna March 21, 2017 at 1:36 am - Reply

    Aren’t illusionists scammers?

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) March 21, 2017 at 8:22 am - Reply

    What we badly need is for the Jeremy Corbyn (our leader) to take control of this dreadful situation and remove those who are damaging Labour’s image so falsely.

    I don’t think the public is really gullible enough to believe all these “sleight of hand tricks” so let’s start really fighting back hard again and win back the public’s confidence by getting rid of the damaging section in the party.

    I can’t believe that people who are suffering so badly under this government are really stupid enough to abandon Labour but I do believe that, providing we can find a way to make a much stronger representation of Labour’s intention to fight for justice and decency for all, we will gain many who are sitting on the side-lines as well.

  3. Fibro confused March 21, 2017 at 8:46 am - Reply

    Without a concerted effort by the whole of the PLP to stick together and concentrate on putting forward the truths with the facts to back it, it won’t matter who is the leader. Old (new) Labour is tainted with the crash so who on earth would the public trust, remembering the current policies pledged are accepted as reasonable and sensible.

  4. NMac March 21, 2017 at 9:46 am - Reply

    Well, Tory Party cheating, corruption and fraud is about to be exposed on a scale that even the right-wing dominated media cannot ignore.

  5. Barry Davies March 21, 2017 at 10:28 am - Reply

    The problem is that unless you are an active labour party member you have no chance of knowing the real facts of what is going on behind the scenes, this allows the mass media to try to sell their wares by continuing to claim there is a drama occurring whether there is or otherwise, not the first time they have tried to lead public opinion rather than reporting a fair a balanced view of the news.

  6. Roland Laycock March 21, 2017 at 10:34 am - Reply

    Give Watson and Progress the boot and let the party get on with the fight against the Tories

  7. autismandate March 21, 2017 at 11:31 am - Reply

    “the Left are taking over the Labour Party ” Tom Watson (who is this person? ) There is no bogey Left. There is more and more ordinary people who are supporting Corbyn’s values.Corbyn is the most feared person by the media and the political cartel. It’s not surprising that Corbyn and his values and policies aren’t registering in popularity polls, because there is a media and political cartel censorship.

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