John McDonnell is at the centre of a row about whether he endorsed a statement before the election advocating doing away with MI5, special police forces and armed officers.
The controversy broke out after it emerged the shadow chancellor’s name was on a long list, apparently of people who had signed a statement by the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory (SCLV).
The final paragraph of the 12-point document states: “Disband MI5 and special police squads, disarm the police.”
The shadow chancellor’s office said on Thursday he believed no such thing and denied he had ever signed the statement, which was prepared before May 2015.
“The letter has never been put in front of John and he’s never signed it,” a spokesman said, pointing out that he had supported extra funding for the security services in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.
Sources close to McDonnell suggested his name might have been included in the list because of a cut and paste error. “These things are normally websites managed by one person and it’s their little hobby horse and it’s not very credible … It’s probably people getting a little bit carried away and just whacking something up.”
However, the Sun then produced a picture of McDonnell holding what appears to be the document, based on a comparison with the campaign material on the SCLV website.
Asked about the letter during a television interview, Diane Abbott, the shadow international development secretary, said: “It may well not be true. It may well be a misunderstanding.” She added on the BBC’s Daily Politics: “I can say with confidence he doesn’t believe it.”
Afterwards, a spokesman for McDonnell said he had thought he was posing with a copy of the SCLV’s general principles, which are a much more general statement of anti-austerity aims.
“John posed in good faith to stand with a copy of what he thought were the principles he signed up to and not the demands which he had never seen before yesterday,” he said.
“To reiterate John does not share these views. Only this week he has called for additional funding for the security services to support them in their vital work in defending our country.”
The SCLV also said McDonnell had spoken to one of their meetings in January about the importance of socialists supporting the Labour party, but he was not present for the discussion of the draft demands and had no involvement in drafting them.
The SCLV said McDonnell’s signature was “attached to the general statement of principles, which he signed up to, and not to the list of specific demands, which he did not sign up to”.
“The demands were a matter of debate and discussion in the campaign and the movement; the general statement was the only thing people signed up to,” it said.
The controversy over the letter comes just days after Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, backtracked on comments made in an interview in which he said he was unhappy with a shoot to kill policy, when asked whether that was appropriate in the event of a Paris-style terror attack in the UK.
After concerns were raised in a fractious meeting of Labour’s parliamentary party, Corbyn clarified: “As we have seen in the recent past, there are clear dangers to us all in any kind of shoot to kill policy. And we must ensure that terrorist attacks are not used to undermine the very freedoms and legal protections we are determined to defend.
“But of course I support the use of whatever proportionate and strictly necessary force is required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris.”