Quotes from John McDonnell

We need to promote employment through investment in major public works schemes to meet the U.K.'s needs.

Only the political process offers the real prospect of a united Ireland at peace with itself.

Heathrow is in my constituency and I have been at both the Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 planning inquiries. At these inquiries my community has been assured by the inquiry inspectors, BAA and government ministers that each development would be the last piece of expansion of the airport because of its ever-increasing noise and air pollution.

To me, education is not a commodity. It is a public good, essential to any society with a claim to being civilised.

If the government is injecting public money, it should also take the right to oversee board appointments, executive pay, and future business operations.

Changing leaders is pointless if the same policies are pursued.

What Gramsci is all about is hegemony: you win the battle of ideas and it dominates.

The arrogant view that young people don't count because they don't vote has thankfully been smashed for ever.

When I was a GLC councillor, we won and held London as Labour was imploding nationally - running popular campaigns against the Thatcher Government and fighting on our own agenda.

Going to university is, and should be, so much more than a mechanical process of grinding out a degree qualification for a pre-determined career path.

Britain has moved on. It is a radically different country from that which shaped New Labour.

When you talk to people about their practical life, for example when they're at work, like the rail industry, the RMT members know better than anyone else how to run their industry.

We believe that leaders should be following the masses. We only ran in leadership campaigns to get our ideas across, to use it as a platform.

If we are to depression-proof our economy we may need to pay more attention to the radical ideas and policies of those who witnessed the misery inflicted on so many during the 1930s.

Democratic government requires the consent of the governed.

In 1985, as a community activist and GLC councillor, I organised the first ever public meeting to explain the threat of a third runway at Heathrow airport for my local community.

The plundering for profit of the world's natural resources has threatened the very sustainability of the planet.

New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of our natural supporters - teachers, health workers, students, pensioners, public service workers, trade unionists and people committed to the environment, civil liberties and peace.

Politicians have patronised and talked down to us all when it comes to our economy, but ordinary working people have to manage on incomes significantly lower than the likes of George Osborne and his friends in the City. They could teach the bankers and many commentators a thing or two about managing a budget responsibly.

Our objectives are socialist. That means an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people.

When you're in the depths of a recession, that isn't the time when people want to challenge the system, they're too busy trying to survive. It's when they're told we're coming out of a recession, growth is returning, and they're not seeing the benefits of it, or they're not seeing them quick enough.

If people need homes then put councils and building workers to work to build them, buy up the empty ones and stop the repossessions.

I would like Leveson Part Two. I think Leveson was a good exercise. That is why the Tories blocked it, because it was beginning to develop more accountability within the media itself.

The Tories have made a complete mess of Brexit negotiations.