Mr McDonnell has declared Labour’s election manifesto to be the party’s “most radical” to date. Many of Mr Corbyn’s critics also perceive his Shadow Chancellor as the true mastermind within the Labour machine and he is seen as one of the more left-wing forces within the party. Prior to his election to Parliament in 1997, Mr McDonnell was appointed as chair of finance for the Greater London Council (GLC) then subsequently promoted to Deputy Leader under future London Mayor Ken Livingstone between 1984 and 1985.  During this short tenure, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced it would cap council rates. The GLC, influenced by Mr McDonnell, almost defied the instruction, in an attempt to undermine the Conservatives.

The GLC then became very vocal about how Mrs Thatcher’s policy would cause major cuts for the capital. 

In his 2019 biography, ‘Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power’, Tom Bower explained how this became problematic, as “the GLC was awash with cash”.

This was supposedly discovered by Reg Race, who was appointed by Ken Livingstone to “oversee GLC’s budget” after Labour’s defeat in the 1983 general election.

According to the biographer: “Observing McDonnell, Race was impressed by his ‘Janus-faced’ manner, his mask concealing the truth: ‘He adopted a moderate position whenever necessary to smoothly reach out to bankers and say whatever was necessary regardless of his true intentions.’”

Mr Bower explained how there was still 60 percent of the GLC’s £325million budget which had not been spent as a “consequence of incompetent bureaucrats failing to commission approved projects”.

Even in an interview published in The Sunday Times Magazine this weekend, Mr McDonnell said himself: “I’ve always been described as a very hard-nosed bureaucrat, and that’s what I am.”

Mr Bower continued: “McDonnell, the chairman of the finance committee, had proved incapable of managing the council’s finances.”

Mr Race then realised that the GLC would not be compelled to cut £180million of services because of Mrs Thatcher’s policies due to the belief “there was no need for any cuts”.

Apparently Mr Race confronted the future Shadow Chancellor, but Mr McDonnell was just “very angry”.

Mr Bower continued: “Ignoring his adviser, in early 1984 [Mr McDonnell] announced that the GLC, because of the Government’s directive, would impose cuts of £140million.

“To keep up the pretence, he went around County Hall telling staff, ‘It’s going to be Armageddon’.”

Mr McDonnell then kept the truth from Mr Livingstone and urged him to even fight to the Government’s cuts.

The future Shadow Chancellor even told Mr Livingstone in a memo: “The whole point of our administration is that we are a challenge to the central capitalist state.”

Apparently the head of the GLC was “unaware” that these were “fabricated” figures, so Mr Livingstone openly stated that Mrs Thatcher’s orders would endanger London’s services.

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Then in February 1985 Mr Race confronted Mr McDonnell that the Government’s rates cap was “irrelevant to the GLC”, presenting him with clear evidence which proved “you have no financial problem”.

Mr Bower recounted their subsequent exchange: “‘I hear what you say’, McDonnell replied in what Race would call an ‘icily furious tone’, then ordered him to ’shred the document. Destroy it’.”

Mr Race refused, and later told Mr Bower: “It was remarkable that McDonnell felt he could ask a civil servant to collude with him to falsify the council’s financial options.”

Mr Livingstone was soon informed about what had happened by Mr Race, and told Mr McDonnell: “If these figures are right, we are going to look like the biggest f***ing liars since Goebbels.”

He eventually agreed to fix a legal rate following the Government’s instructions and proceeded to tell the whole of the GLC how Mr McDonnell had ‘deceived’ him. As Mr Bower explained, he blamed “his subordinate’s dishonesty on his ‘training as a supporter of the Militant Tendency’.”

Apparently Mr Corbyn, who was also working in the GLC at the time, was “visibly outraged” when he saw Mr Livingstone vote for a legal budget.

Mr Bower explained: “But while Corbyn endorsed McDonnell’s defiance, he stepped back from illegality himself. He refused to break the rules.”

Mr McDonnell was subsequently sacked from the GLC. 

The two continued to snipe at each other afterwards, with Mr McDonnell claiming Livingstone had “betrayed the Labour movement” while Mr Livingstone claimed he was always going to lose “if he failed to adopt a more honest approach”.

Mr McDonnell has continued to be a divisive figure within the Labour Party. 

The Guardian reported in 2015, following his appointment as Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor: “Admirers say McDonnell, 64, is a serious thinker, but his years of political isolation on the far left fringe of New Labour have seen him adopt some of the traits of what became known in the Eighties as the ‘loony left’.”

Labour are currently behind in the opinion polls as the Conservatives take a 19-point lead, according to the latest Opinium survey.

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