Labour set to suspend Diane Abbott for repeating race comments

Times

17-07-2025

Labour is expected to suspend Diane Abbott for 'doubling down' on claims that Jews experience racism differently from black people.
The former shadow home secretary, a veteran left-winger, had the whip removed in April 2023 over a letter to The Observer in which she wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people 'undoubtedly experience prejudice' that is 'similar to racism'.
But she added at the time: '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.'
• Diane Abbott has Labour whip suspended over Jewish racism claims
She withdrew the comments and apologised for 'any anguish caused', saying the letter had been a draft published in error. However, asked on Wednesday if she regretted the comments, which led to her being suspended from the party for a year, Abbott told BBC Radio 4: 'No, not at all.'
She added: 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know [their background]. You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them.
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'But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. They are different types of racism.'
A Labour Party spokesman said: 'There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party.
'We take these comments incredibly seriously, and will assess them in line with the Labour Party's rules and procedures.'
Senior Labour sources said Abbott was expected to lose the whip. One said it was for 'doubling down on something she previously had the whip withdrawn for'. They added that she 'shouldn't be immune because she's the mother of the house' — the title given to the longest-serving female MP.
Abbott, who became the first black female MP in 1987, was pressed on whether she believed she had done anything wrong. In response, she said: '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. I just … I don't know why people would say that.'
Protesters outside Hackney Town Hall in east London last May demanded she be allowed to stand for Labour at the general election
ALISHIA ABODUNDE/GETTY IMAGES
Abbott maintained she had 'spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting antisemitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency'.
As the MP for the north London constituency of Hackney North & Stoke Newington, Abbott's seat has one of the highest proportion of Jewish residents in the UK, many of whom live in Stamford Hill.
Her comments risk reopening the row that saw Abbott suspended in the first place. Her readmission to the parliamentary party was contentious, as some had sought to block her from being able to stand again as an MP at the general election.
However, Abbott's supporters pushed for her to be reinstated. Abbott said: 'I got tremendous support locally. We had a big rally on the steps of Hackney Town Hall. And in the end Keir Starmer and the people around him had to back off because of the support I had from the community.'