Diane Abbott has been officially suspended from the Labour Party after refusing to retract controversial comments claiming Jewish people experience racism differently from Black people, party sources have confirmed this evening.
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP lost the whip following her BBC Radio 4 interview on Wednesday, where she said she had “no regrets” about her 2023 letter to The Observer that sparked her original suspension.
Labour acted swiftly after Abbott told the programme it was “silly” to equate racism based on skin colour with discrimination faced by Jewish and Traveller communities.
Swift Action from Leadership
The suspension comes just hours after a Labour Party spokesperson warned they were taking Abbott’s latest comments “incredibly seriously” and would assess them under party rules.
There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party,” the spokesperson said earlier today, before the decision to suspend was finalised.
Senior Labour sources had indicated throughout the day that the veteran MP would face disciplinary action for what one insider called “doubling down on something she previously had the whip withdrawn for.
Second Suspension in Two Years
This marks the second time in two years that Abbott, Britain’s first Black female MP, has been suspended from the parliamentary party over the same issue.
Her original suspension in April 2023 lasted over a year after she wrote to The Observer claiming that whilst Irish, Jewish and Traveller people experience “prejudice”, this was different from 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,” she had written.
Retracted Apology Proves Fatal
Abbott’s downfall came when she withdrew her previous apology during Wednesday’s BBC interview. Asked if she regretted the 2023 letter, she replied: “No, not at all.”
She went on to defend her position: “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.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the fresh comments, with a spokesperson stating: “These remarks show a fundamental misunderstanding of how antisemitism operates in society.
Political Isolation Deepens
The suspension leaves Abbott sitting as an independent MP once again, despite winning her tenth election in July 2024 and becoming Mother of the House.
Labour MPs have remained notably silent on the suspension, with none publicly defending Abbott’s comments. The move comes just 24 hours after Sir Keir Starmer suspended four other Labour MPs for voting against the government’s welfare bill.
Abbott had only regained the Labour whip in May 2024 after completing an antisemitism awareness course and receiving a formal warning from the party’s National Executive Committee.
Historical Figure Sidelined
The 71-year-old MP has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 and served as Shadow Home Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020.
Her memoir “A Woman Like Me”, published last year, revealed she stood by her original comments despite acknowledging they were “ill-judged” and “clumsy”.
Speaking at the Cambridge Literary Festival earlier this year, Abbott had claimed: “I was elected for the tenth time last year, but that was no thanks to the people around Keir Starmer.
Zero Tolerance Approach
The suspension underscores Starmer’s zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism as he continues efforts to distance the party from controversies during the Corbyn era.
A Labour source close to the leadership said: “The party has changed under Keir Starmer. There can be no exceptions, regardless of someone’s seniority or history.”
Abbott now faces another lengthy investigation process, with no timeline given for when the matter might be resolved. She remains entitled to sit in Parliament as an independent MP.
The Jewish Labour Movement welcomed the suspension, stating: “No one should be immune from facing consequences for antisemitism, regardless of their position in the party.”
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Image Credit:
Diane Abbott, 2016 Labour Party Conference – Image by Rwendland, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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