Fairly predictable from McDonnell. The usual 'not as bad as predicted' line that will no doubt be reeled out after the General Election as well:
1h ago 08:08
McDonnell says there were 'some disappointments' for Labour, but not the wipeout predicted
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, told Sky News that there had been “some disappointments” for Labour but that the results were not as bad as some were predicting. He said:
• Well, it’s mixed results definitely. It’s been a tough night. There have been some disappointments. There hasn’t been a wipeout in some areas that some of the polls were predicting.
• If you look in Doncaster, we won the mayoral on the first ballot, which was very good. In West of England, where people never gave us much of a hope, we came within 5,000 votes of winning that. That was a good result.
• And in Wales, where again there were predictions of a wipeout, and where Theresa May went down to campaign in Newport, we held on to Newport. Where we’ve lost in Wales is where we picked up seats from the independents in both Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent. They’ve reverted to independents.
But he said support for Labour could pick up when its manifesto was published.
• The manifestoes from all the parties will be published in the next couple of weeks and I think you will see the support for our policies is incredibly strong and we will translate that into support for the party.
And he predicted that voters would warm to Jeremy Corbyn as they saw more of him in the general election campaign.
• And as Jeremy gets more airtime, I think people are beginning to see the real Jeremy Corbyn’s character emerge and be in support ...
• Now we are in the general election campaign, and the media are forced to give some balance, the televised broadcast media, I think what you are seeing is that we are picking up support, and as Jeremy gets more media time, people are seeing the real character of the man, this decent, honest, strong leader, in terms of principles and how to go forward.
Deluded...
