It's about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. 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.

McDonnell apologised for these comments in September 2015 on the BBC's Question Time: "If I gave offence – and I clearly have – from the bottom of my heart I apologise". Sands died in May 1981. While imprisoned for the possession of firearms, Sands was elected to the Westminster parliament as an MP (at the time current or former prisoners sentenced to more than a year in custody could stand as parliamentary candidates in the UK).