The moment John McDonnell quoted from Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book when responding to George Osborne’s spending review has been cut from the speech uploaded to his official YouTube channel after prompting mass ridicule.



The shadow chancellor pulled out a copy of the late Chinese communist leader’s book to make a point about Osborne’s relationship with China, read out a passage and then threw it across the table of the house.

The move was met with laughter and jeering from the Conservative benches and instantly attracted criticism for appearing to elevate the words of a man responsible for millions of deaths in China.

McDonnell said: “To assist comrade Osborne about dealing with his newfound comrades, I have brought him along Mao’s Little Red Book. Let’s quote from Mao, rarely done in this chamber. The quote is this: ‘We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are, we must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously, but we must not pretend to know what we do not know.’ I thought it would come in handy for him in his new relationship.”

Here is the full clip:

And here is how it appeared on the shadow chancellor’s YouTube profile: