It was a busy morning for criminal barrister Mark McDonald, who made a whistle stop media round earlier today as he and his colleagues went on strike over the profession’s salary and conditions. Having rejected the government’s offer of a 15% pay rise, McDonald made the case for a 21% increase on BBC News, along with a quick chat to Kay Burley on Sky to slam the government for a minute or so for good measure. A decent media performance for a broadcasting novice… 

What both channels forgot to mention is that McDonald was the Labour candidate for Stoke-on-Trent in 2019. Here he is posing alongside the absolute boy himself just before the election…

McDonald is also a founding member of the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, and his Twitter account is full of the usual anti-Tory talking points you’d expect of a man backed by Momentum. Unfortunately he lost to Jack Brereton at the election, so he didn’t quite manage to advance his interests from the Commons benches. Back to donning his wig and robes instead…