DUDLEY North MP Ian Austin has hit out at shadow chancellor John McDonnell after the Labour heavyweight dubbed Winston Churchill a ‘villain’.

Mr Austin took to Twitter to defend the wartime Prime Minister’s record, describing him as ‘a real British hero, the greatest ever Briton, the man who motivated Britain to defeat the Nazis and fight not just for our liberty but the world’s freedom too.’

He also posted a picture of a statue he keeps of Churchill in his Dudley home.

McDonnell made the comment in response to a sequence of quick-fire questions in an interview with Politico streamed live on the internet, one of which asked: "Winston Churchill. Hero or villain?"

His response made clear that he held the former Prime Minister to blame for sending in troops to help police deal with striking Welsh miners when home secretary in 1910.

Mr McDonnell answered with two words: "Tonypandy - villain".

Churchill's reputation has long been tarnished for some on the left by events in the South Wales town of Tonypandy more than a century ago.

His decision to deploy a detachment of Lancashire Fusiliers to support police dealing with riots was followed by confrontations in which nearly 80 police and 500 civilians were injured and one miner died.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has also waded into the row, demanding that McDonnell withdraw his comments.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Johnson, who has written a book on the wartime PM, said: "Winston Churchill saved this country and the whole of Europe from a barbaric fascist and racist tyranny and our debt to him is incalculable.

"If John McDonnell had the slightest knowledge of history he would be aware that Churchill also had an extraordinary record as a social reformer who cared deeply for working people and their lives. JM should be utterly ashamed of his remarks and withdraw them forthwith."