Below is a 16 minute interview with John McDonnell, who is standing for the leadership of the Labour Party.

John McDonnell has huge support with rank and file Labour Party and Trade Union members, however, he requires 44 nominations from Labour Party MPs to be put on the ballot paper. As you can imagine a lot of Labour Party MPs do feel intimidated by the existing Labour Party leadership to not nominate John McDonnell.

I am therefore asking those people who live in Labour constituencies to write to your MP and ask them to nominate John McDonnell, a template for a petition is also available for download.

As you can imagine a socialist program will never get much attention in the media, at least in anything but a negative way, the Guardian, and the Mirror have at least mentioned John McDonnell a few times, which is more than the media blackout everywhere else, nevertheless, if John McDonnell can get on the ballot paper it will seriously shake up New Labour, and hopefully bring about the end of Blairism and the New Labour project within the Labour Party, allowing it once again to represent its members, the working class as a whole, and no longer the interests of capital.

A brief overview of some of the policies that John McDonnell supports follows:

A real living minimum wage of at least £7 an hour.
The end to privatisation of public services, re-nationalise rail and postal services.
An increase in the Basic State Pension from £84.25 to £114 a week.
Defence of comprehensive education and the abolition of student tuition fees.
The withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
A green energy policy based on renewable power sources.
The restoration of trade union rights and civil liberties.

For more policies download the Programme for a Real Labour Government produced by the Labour Representation Committee.