John McDonnell calmly dispatched claims that he should be kicked out of the Labour Party as he went toe-to-toe with Lord Ian Austin on Sky News.
The Labour MP was caught in a feisty confrontation with Tory peer Austin as Sir Keir Starmer became embroiled in a row about the handling of antisemitism allegations.
Parliamentary candidate Graham Jones was suspended on Tuesday, only a day after Labour was forced to suspend and withdraw its backing for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali.
It came after audio, obtained by website Guido Fawkes, appeared to show the former Labour MP use the words “f Israel” at the same meeting Mr Ali attended, while also allegedly suggesting that British people who volunteer to fight with the Israel Defence Forces should be “locked up”.
The news has given the green light to right-leaning political commentators to come out in force for a bit of classic Corbyn-bashing for no other reason than to justify their peerages.
Thankfully, McDonnell managed to keep his calm here and dispatch Lord Austin in some style:
