Labour's John McDonnell has admitted he 'cries all the time' as he attacked the Brexit Party and revealed he is a 'Remainer at heart' in a wide-ranging interview.

The Shadow Chancellor, a self-admitted Marxist who has three children and five grandchildren, described his parenting style as 'soft' and told how he cried when Jeremy Corbyn was shortlisted for the Labour leadership contest in 2015.

He said his constituents upset him the most - citing stories of people who have tried to kill themselves because of a loss of benefits - before going on to offer his thoughts on the success of Nigel Farage in the European elections.

In an interview with the Times Magazine, he also reaffirmed his pro-EU tendencies, saying: 'In my heart I'm a Remainer - I campaigned for Remain - but we have to respect the decision that was made.'

McDonnell also said that the Soviet Union 'was never socialism', claiming that socialists were the first people to go to the gulags in the USSR.

John McDonnell, pictured in Trafalgar Square in front of a banner of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin, has branded the Brexit Party a 'stepping stone to the far right'

On the topic of the rising popularity of Nigel Farage's new political party, he said: 'The issue for me on the Brexit Party is not where the votes are going, it's the nature of its politics... It gives a stepping stone for the far right and that's very worrying.

'We had that politics in this area for a long time, with the BNP and the National Front. I wouldn't want to be inflicted on the rest of society.'

His comments come after the Brexit Party's success at the European Parliament elections last month, with the new political force gaining nearly 31% of the vote - a comfortable first place with the Lib Dems in second with just under 20%.

McDonnell's Labour won 13.7 per cent of the vote.

On the topic of the rising popularity of Nigel Farage's new political party, McDonnell said: 'It gives a stepping stone for the far right and that's very worrying'

Farage, the Brexit Party founder, left his former party UKIP over its appointment of Tommy Robinson as an adviser.

The Shadow Chancellor went on to describe himself as 'working class', using the Marxist definition, as he does not 'own or control the means of production'.

He revealed his religious upbringing, growing up in in an Irish Catholic family in Liverpool, attending Mass every Sunday, becoming an altar boy and going on retreats with monks.

McDonnell attended a boarding school run by the De La Selle brothers and started training to become a priest, saying he misses the Latin, incense and 'drama' of it all.

He goes on to say that doubts began forming when he was 16 years old, adding that the New Testament is about 'transforming society' and 'tackling poverty', which he claims are 'embedded' in his socialism - adding that he always viewed Jesus as a socialist.

McDonnell has previously sparked outrage by making a call to honour people involved in the IRA's 'armed struggle', saying: '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.'

In 2006 McDonnell voiced his belief that 'Marx, Lenin and Trotsky' were his 'most significant' intellectual influences, and he was one of the 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader in 2015.