Richard Burgon is known to Guido’s readers as the “farting commie“, thanks to his links to the Communist Party of Britain and propensity to suffer from flatulence in the Commons chamber. He is also Labour’s City spokesman, watch and cringe at this car crash on Channel 4 News last night:

Cathy Newman: “What is the deficit going to be this year?”

Richard Burgon: “Well. I’m not an economic, erm. I’m not somebody who’s gonna put a figure in a crystal ball on what the deficit’s gonna be at the end of the year.”

CN: “You don’t need a crystal ball, it’s in the government’s financial forecasts.”

RB: “I think it’ll be higher than the government says it’s gonna be…”

CN: “When was the last time that you met someone from the Square Mile?”

RB: “Well. We meet people all the time from the City.”

CN: “When was the last time you went into a City firm though?”

RB: “Well I was only appointed to this role a number of weeks ago. Parliament has been in recess…”

CN: “Have you fixed any meetings with anyone in the City?”

RB: “I’ve got a very busy diary as you can imagine.”

He makes John McDonnell look competent…