New row: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell's comments about the row have long been controversial and it has emerged he allegedly said the 'ballot, the bullet and the bomb' would end British rule in Northern Ireland

John McDonnell said the 'ballot, the bomb and the bullet' would unite Ireland at the height of the IRA's murderous war with Britain, it emerged today.

Labour's shadow chancellor also said councillors who boycotted pro-republican meeting he spoke at during the Troubles were 'gutless wimps' and joked that 'kneecapping might help change their mind'.

Mr McDonnell spoke out at a meeting attended by a Sinn Fein councillor from Northern Ireland in New Cross, south-east London in 1986 - a year where the IRA murdered at least 13 people.

An account from the event was uncovered by The Times today where he was quoted as saying the 'ballot, the bullet and the bomb' would end British rule in Northern Ireland.

The newspaper found a piece on the meeting in the Deptford and Peckham Mercury, which said: 'Mr McDonnell went on to describe the Lewisham Labour councillors who had boycotted the meeting as 'gutless wimps' and joked that knee-capping might help to change their minds.'

Knee-capping was used by the IRA to spread fear where their enemies were shot through the back of the knees, shattering the sockets and blowing off knee-caps.

The senior Labour MP's views on the IRA have long been criticised after he said in 2003 their members should be 'honoured' for their 'bravery'.

He said: 'It's about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle.

'It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.

'The peace we have now is due to the action of the IRA. Because of the bravery of the IRA and people like Bobby Sands, we now have a peace process.'

After his friend Jeremy Corbyn made his shadow chancellor he appeared on Question Time and apologised for his remarks.

Past: Mr McDonnell rose to prominence as on the GLC with Ken Livingstone, who sacked him from his cabinet role for being too left-wing (pictured together in 1982)

But he was accused of trying to 'excuse' his remarks and trying to 'explain away' his support for violent extremism.

The new revelations, when he was a 35-year-old Labour council policy worker, was at a meeting attended by IRA sympathisers including a convicted car bomber.

Mr McDonnell's spokesman last night claimed his comments were taken out of context but the journalist who covered the event insists they were accurate.

He said: 'John has no recollection of making these remarks. The quote is clearly taken out of context — John rejects all forms of violence and has done so all his political career.

'John has also been a long-standing campaigner for peace in Northern Ireland and advocated speaking to Sinn Fein as part of a peace process long before it became accepted practice.'

Diarmuid Breatnach, who organised the meeting told The Times: 'I do recall him making some throwaway but unfortunate remark about knee-capping in the context of the rate-capping that the Conservative government was introducing at the time.'

It came days after he threw Chairman's Mao's Little Red Book at George Osborne and said the Tories should follow the dictator's economic advice - even though it caused 60 million people to starve to death.

In an extraordinary moment Mr McDonnell, who also previously said he would like to 'go back to the 1980s and assassinate Thatcher', pulled Mao Zedong's famous book of quotes from his pocket and read aloud.

He then tossed his own copy of the communist book across the Despatch Box and Mr Osborne has since taken the 'well-thumbed' copy with him to the Treasury, a source told MailOnline.

Communist: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell pulled Chairman Mao's Little Red Book from his pocket on Wednesday (left) before quoting the dictator's economic advice to the Tories (right)

Shock: Mr McDonnell tossed the book of Mao quotes onto the table and Mr Osborne, David Cameron and others could not stop laughing

But in another Maoist-inspired act Mr McDonnell later tweeted a video of his speech to the Commons but his stunt with the Red Book was edited out.

Tossing the Red Book is not the first time he has caused controversy in the Commons.

Anti-capitalist Mr McDonnell said this year he would 'swim through vomit' to oppose Tory benefit cuts and lists among his interests in Who's Who 'generally fermenting the overthrow of capitalism'.

In 2009 he was suspended when he picked up the mace after he lost his temper in a debate on a third runway at Heathrow.

Mr McDonnell rose to prominence as Ken Livingstone's hardline deputy on the Greater London Council, but the pair fell out because he felt Red Ken's policies were not left wing enough.

Mr Livingstone had accused Mr McDonnell, who was then in charge of the GLC's finance committee, of hiding its financial problems, while the new shadow chancellor accused Livingstone of 'bottling' the chance to oppose Margaret Thatcher's budget.