Diane Abbott doubled down on her claims about anti-Semitism being less serious than anti-black racism as she accused Keir Starmer of trying to force her out of the Labour party.
The veteran leftwinger, 71, was suspended last night for claiming in a BBC interview that prejudice faced by Jews was not on par with colour-based discrimination, the second time she has lost the whip for the controversial assertion.
She previously made an apology in 2023 after writing to the Observer to say that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice, but not racism in the way that people of colour do.
Following her suspension Ms Abbott issued a statement to Newsnight insisting what she said had been ‘factually accurate’, adding: ‘It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.’
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, who is Mother of the House as the longest serving female MP, was the fifth Labour MP to lose the whip this week as Sir Keir tries to instill discipline on his fractious party.
Four others were suspended on Wednesday for persistent rebellions over welfare cuts and other issues.
And the decision to investigate Ms Abbott as well prompted allies to attack the leadership. One MP told Politico that Starmer loyalists were acting like ‘Billy Big-B*llocks’ and had wanted 40 MPs to be removed, and another said they agreed with her comments.
However, Angela Rayner, the deputy Prime Minister and a leading figure of the party left, criticised Ms Abbott last night.
She told the Guardian she was ‘disappointed, saying: ‘Diane had reflected on how she’d put that [2023] article together, and said that ”was not supposed to be the version”, and now to double down and say: ”Well, actually I didn’t mean that. I actually meant what I originally said,” I think is a real challenge.’
The veteran leftwinger was suspended last night for claiming in a BBC interview that prejudice faced by Jews was not on par with colour-based discrimination, the second time she has lost the whip for the controversial assertion.
Following her suspension Ms Abbott issued a statement to Newsnight insisting what she said had been ‘factually accurate’, adding: ‘It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.’
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, who is Mother of the House as the longest serving female MP, was the fifth Labour MP to lose the whip this week as Sir Keir tries to instill discipline on his fractious party.
Exchequer secretary to the Treasury James Murray said it was ‘absolutely not the case’ that Number 10 had wanted to remove the whip.
‘What’s happened is Diane has made some comments which come on the back of previous comments which she made and for which she apologised some time ago,’ he told Times Radio.
He added that there was an internal investigation and ‘we now need to let this process play out’ so it can be resolved ‘as swiftly as possible’.
The original comments in 2023 were in a letter to The Observer newspaper, and she withdrew the remarks the same day and apologised ‘for any anguish caused’.
In the interview with BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret.
‘No, not at all,’ she said.
‘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.
‘You don’t know unless you stop to speak to them or you’re in a meeting with them.
The veteran MP first made the controversial comments in a letter to the Observer newspaper in 2023 as she responded to a recent comment article
Ms Abbott issued a public apology in 2023 to ‘wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them’
‘But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. There are different types of racism.’
She added: ‘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.’
Ms Abbott entered Parliament in 1987 and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House.
Her suspension comes in the same week that Sir Keir carried out a purge of troublesome backbenchers following a revolt over planned welfare reforms which saw the Government offer major concessions to rebels.
Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government’s Bill, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff.
Party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
