‘It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.’
Keir Starmer has suspended Diane Abbott, the longest-serving female MP, for a second time after she repeated comments about racism she was previously suspended for.
In a BBC Radio 4 interview with James Naughtie, which was recorded in May but released yesterday, she said: “Clearly there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism”.
She said that this is because you can’t immediately see if a person is a Traveller or is Jewish.
On the other hand, she said this isn’t the case for a black person. She stated: “If you see a black person walking down the street you see straight away that they’re black.”
In April 2023, Abbott made similar comments in a letter to the Observer, which ultimately wound up in her being suspended after Starmer called them “antisemitic”.
She then had the whip restored in May 2024, ahead of the general election.
In the letter, she said: “Irish, Jewish and Traveller people undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism. It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism.”
Asked if she regretted the whole “hoo-ha” two years ago, she said “No, not at all”.
She defended her comments from 2023, saying “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.”
The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said she condemns antisemitism, but gets “a bit weary” of being labelled antisemitic. She said she has spent her whole life fighting racism, particularly antisemitism, given the large Jewish population in her constituency.
Abbott will now sit as an Independent MP while the Labour Party carries out an investigation.
Responding to her suspension, Abbott said: “It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.
“My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept,” she said.
Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti said on the BBC: “People who are writing island of strangers speeches should be a bit slow to sit in judgement on Diane Abbott who has been fighting racism all her life.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn’t have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
