Labour shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said he would not fire nuclear weapons to protect Britain and named Das Kapital as his most influential book.

Mr McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn's effective deputy, also defended his historic support for the IRA saying “everything I did around Ireland was to try to bring about peace”.

During the interview Mr McDonnell also compared himself and Mr Corbyn - both pensioners - as like “two old geezers from Last of the Summer Wine touring the country”.

Asked by the New Statesman “would you press the so-called nuclear button, if you were prime minister?”, Mr McDonnell said: “No.”

The comments risk reviving the row over Mr Corbyn's refusal to say that he would fire nuclear weapons to protect the UK. During the general election last year, the Labour leader was jeered and heckled by a live television audience when he said he would not fire nuclear weapons first to defend Britain.

In the wide ranging interview Mr McDonnell - who will speak from the platform at the TUC annual conference next week for the first time - said that Karl Marx's Communist tract Das Kapital was his most influential book.

He said: "It has to be Das Kapital. Francis Wheen’s description of Kapital is brilliant. It is not just a piece of economics, it’s a work of literature as well."

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Mr McDonnell also defended his historic support for the IRA saying : "Everything I did around Ireland was to try to bring about peace.

"It came from my Irish background, but we also had the threat of bombs in this constituency as well.

"So I was worried about what was happening on the ground – of people losing their lives. And I was desperate to do anything to secure the peace."

In 2003, Mr McDonnell had said: “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.”

Asked if he were worried about a "run on the pound" in the event of a Labour election win, he said: “We’ll be prepared for anything. Look, the pound is already in a terrible state because of government policy. Don’t blame me, blame them."

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Mr McDonnell also accused the BBC of bias against Labour when its spokesmen were being interviewed.

He said: “When they interview a minister, there seems to be a natural deference to the ministerial title.

"With us, they will interrupt continuously. There’s a natural establishment bias. In the written media, it relates to the ownership, which is owned by the right, full stop.

"But in terms of the BBC, there is an establishment bias… You get used to it. At the GLC, you got trained up on how to handle it, but then also do as much live stuff as possible because they can’t edit it, so the live broadcasting is important to us.”

On the prospect of a breakaway by moderate Labour MPs, he said: "“If there are people willing to leave the party, OK, I’m saddened and disappointed by that.

"If it’s about Brexit, they know the debate is happening. If it’s around individual careers, I understand that but am disappointed by it.”

He added: "Any split is automatically damaging. A new party will take votes away from Labour."