Quotes from John McDonnell

If Marx was alive during the Stalinist period, he'd be first to be in the gulag.

I'm a Marxist.

You can't change the world through the parliamentary system.

The concept of loyalty to the leader is set firmly in the ethos of the Labour party.

If we as a party are serious about devolution, then we must respect councils and nations enough to determine their own agenda.

I am categorically opposed to any fees for education - and I have voted and campaigned against their introduction at every stage.

To be effective in tackling poverty wages, a living wage has to be mandatory and basic trade union rights should be restored so workers can protect themselves from exploitative employers.

I sneaked into an Everton match once. I'm a Liverpool supporter, but Liverpool were away, Liverpool reserves weren't playing, there wasn't even a youth match, so I took my son into an Everton match. God help me. It wasn't me.

Our supporters just want a Labour government. They want a Labour government that does what Labour governments are expected to do. They expect a Labour government to provide them, their families and their communities with the support and security they need, especially in difficult times.

I think that I was the first MP to call for the nationalisation of Northern Rock, although that is hardly surprising because I have been calling for the nationalisation of the financial sector for 30 years or more.

Governments usually end not with a bang but with a whimper, as the Conservatives learned in the 1990s. Support and authority erodes over time until there is a final collapse of support and pivotal electoral shift.

When governments fail us, what else can people do except take to direct action? When corporate power can so dominate government policy-making that whole communities are placed at risk, where else can people turn?

There'll be creative business leaders but actually, when it comes down to it, they can't do anything unless they're part of a collective. Unless they've got that wealth creator, that engineer and that work person, that skilled person at the bench to fulfil that idea... they're nothing.

The worry in Labour circles is that, when pressed, Gordon Brown instinctively moved to cut the benefits of the poor rather than upset businesses and the wealthy.

We urgently need a major programme of investment in renewable energy generation to tackle climate change.

If corporations and rich people who made fortunes out of us during the boom are not paying their fair share then reform the tax system and close down the tax havens.

Many argue that graduates earn a 'premium' because of their education, and should have to pay their way. I agree, and that's why I've always advocated a progressive taxation system - so if people do receive large salaries, they pay more income tax.

New Labour has deregulated, liberalised and privatised - but every time the private sector fails it is the taxpayer who pays.

We want to be absolutely clear to the people what we are about. No backroom deals whatsoever and we're not going to be held back by any other political parties.

Producing more reams of detailed policies that have marginal and limited effects on our society is futile.

The U.K. needs to diversify - to become the technological as well as the financial centre of Europe.

We need an NHS with fewer managers, fewer contractors and more power (rather than choice) to patients - with the input of the real experts: healthcare professionals.

Airport expansion is just one example of how our planet is being plundered for profit.

A fairer system bases itself on actual outcomes - if you earn more you pay more, through progressive income tax.