A LABOUR government will need to start borrowing soon after taking power and unions can help the fight for a fair taxation system with “the occasional tickling of industrial action,” former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said today.

Mr McDonnell told a PCS fringe meeting that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would have about a year before “disenchantment” set in if the party is not seen to be delivering a “genuinely transformative” government.

He said that the failure of Germany’s Social Democrats in this respect was fuelling the rise of the far right, warning that “it’s based on anti-migrant, conservative social policies and attacks on any scapegoat they can find, including trade unions.”