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Jeremy Corbyn has spent more than 30 years as a left-wing MP railing against the excesses of capitalism.

So it's not a surprise if he struggled to answer a basic question today - being asked to name one good thing about it.

Asked if it's ever got anything right, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Well, capitalism is a system that has evolved, it's a system that is there."

Once again, Mr Marr pressed him to say one good thing capitalism had done.

Labour's leader replied: "Well, it does invest...". But he swiftly added: "Mainly for its own benefit."

(Image: Paul Davey / SWNS.com) (Image: PA)

And as far as extolling the virtues of capitalism was concerned, that was it.

In the same interview, Mr Corbyn insisted "I’m not going to give you the Chinese economy, no absolutely not."

But he said the Communist country, although it had "massive issues" with environmental destruction and human rights, had "taken a lot of people out of poverty."

Asked about capitalism, Labour's leader added: "It does of course get challenged.

"Isn't that what social movements are about? Isn't that what trade unions are about? Isn't that what our democracy is about?"

(Image: BBC) (Image: BBC)

It comes after his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell claimed crisis-hit Venezuela simply "took a wrong turn".

The socialist country faces food shortages and street protests prompted by an economic crisis.

Yet its social policies "would have been successful if they had actually mobilised the oil resources to invest in the long-term," Mr McDonnell told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He claimed Venezuela's was "not a particularly effective path and not a socialist path".

He added: "They should have learned the lessons of the UK, we squandered our oil resources as well, we allowed private profit to take the benefits of that."