Jeremy Corbyn has admitted Labour is braced for market meltdown and a run on the Pound if he wins power.
The Labour leader confirmed that the party has been using ‘war games’ to rehearse how they will respond to national panic if they end up government.
But he insisted the planning just showed they were ‘serious’ and prepared for all eventualities.
A major run on the pound could trigger a recession almost overnight if the City has no confidence in a new Labour administration.
Jeremy Corbyn was interviewed by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg at Labour conference in Brighton today. The journalist has needed a bodyguard after suffering vile trolling from left-wing activists
Mr Corbyn, pictured being interviewed at conference today, has admitted the party is preparing for market meltdown if he wins power
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (left with Jeremy Corbyn on the conference platform yesterday) said the party could get by a ‘hostile’ response if they seize No 10
The preparations emerged as Labour holds its annual conference in Brighton, where Mr Corbyn and his left wing allies have been consolidating their grip on the party.
But the leadership is facing a furious anti-Semitism row after activists at an event on the fringe of the gathering compared supporters of Israel to the Nazis.
Another speaker suggested Labour should be free to debate whether the Holocaust had happened.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has demanded ‘swift action’ from the leadership to expel those who make unacceptable remarks.
But former London mayor Ken Livingstone, a supporter of Mr Corbyn, waded into the controversy by saying that activists not anti-Semitic but just going ‘over the top’ because they were angry about the treatment of Palestinians.
Mr Corbyn is also facing a row about intimidation of Laura Kuenssberg. TheBBC’s political editor has been given a bodyguard following threats from Left-wingers at the conference.
In an apparent sign of tensions with the corporation, the leader has not agreed to the traditional conference interview with its flagship Radio 4 Today programme – although he was interviewed by Ms Kuenssberg herself this afternoon.
ACTRESS QUITS LABOUR OVER CULTURE OF ABUSE
Award-winning actress Frances Barber has quit Labour over ‘misogyny, anti-Semitism and thuggery’.
Barber, who has starred in hit series such as Silk, revealed on Twitter that she was cancelling her membership in protest.
She said abandoning the party, which she supported at the general election, made her ‘deeply sad’ but she felt she had not choice.
‘Long time coming. Cancelled my LP membership tonight. I can’t belong to a party full of misogyny, anti semitism & thuggery. Deeply sad,’ she wrote.
Asked about the threats made to the journalist, Mr Corbyn said: ‘I don’t wish anyone to have to be accompanied by a bodyguard anywhere in our society and certainly not in our conference. I don’t want anyone to be abused by anyone.’
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell revealed the party’s preparations for a ‘hostile’ response if they defy expectations and seize No 10.
Addressing a fringe event at Labour conference last night, he said MrCorbyn was determined to ‘hit the ground running’ if he won power but admitted any such victory could terrify the markets.
Left-wing academic Richard Barbrook, a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster and the founder of a group called Class Wargames, is running the rehearsals for Labour, Mr McDonnell said.
Speaking to Momentum activists in Brighton, the shadow chancellor said the party had to ‘scenario plan’ with experts ‘to talk through ‘what happens if?”
Acknowledging those scenarios included capital flight, he said: ‘What happens if there is a run on the pound?’
He continued: ‘I don’t think there will (be), but you never know, so we’ve got to scenario plan for that …. People want to know we are ready and they want to know we have got a response to everything that could happen.
‘Because if we can demonstrate that, that will calm things down.’
Mr Corbyn (pictured writing his keynote conference speech for tomorrow) was urged to act after activists applauded panellists at a fringe meeting who likened supporters of Israel to Nazis
Jeremy Corbyn, pictured taking a photograph on the Labour conference stage today, is struggling to contain a row over anti-Semitism in the party
A major run on the pound could trigger a recession almost overnight if the City (file image) has no confidence in a new Labour administration
At the event he said Labour’s plans if they had won the June 8 election would have seen a budget by the end of July legislating for a financial transaction tax and measures to crack down on tax avoidance.
Mr McDonnell said Labour should increase involvement from wider society in the development of plans to ‘build up a base’ that can resist the ‘potential assault’ a radical government would face.
At the event, Unite union boss Len McCluskey had a less ambitious aim for Labour’s first 100 days in office: ‘I suspect I will be drunk for 100 days.