The Labour Party says it is once again assessing the hardline MP’s comments.
The Labour Party has suggested Diane Abbott could be on the brink of being kicked out yet again after she insisted she stands by her ‘offensive’ comments about anti-Jewish racism. In a new BBC interview Ms Abbott, the longest serving female MP in parliament, said she does not regret her remarks made in a letter to the Observer newspaper in April 2023.
Ms Abbott suggested that people of colour experience racism differently to Irish, Jewish and Traveller communities, adding the latter groups are not subject to racism “all their lives”. She later apologised and withdrew the remarks, claiming the letter had been an initial draft that was submitted to the newspaper prematurely. However asked today whether she regrets the row that saw her suspended from the Labour Party for a year, she defiantly replied: “No, not at all.”
The Mother of the Commons could find herself suspended yet again (Image: Getty)
“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.
“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.”
Asked if she believed she had done anything wrong, Ms Abbott hit back: “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.”
Sir Keir branded Ms Abbott’s comments ‘antisemitic’ (Image: Getty)
Responding to the bombshell u-turn on her apology, a Labour Party spokesman has now suggested to the Express that Ms Abbott may once again be kicked out of the party.
They warned: “There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We take these comments incredibly seriously, and will assess them in line with Labour Party’s rules and procedures.”
Two years ago, Sir Keir Starmer condemned her comments as overtly “antisemitic”.
He argued: “In my view what she said was to be condemned, it was antisemitic. Diane Abbott has suffered a lot of racial abuse over many, many years … that doesn’t take away from the fact that I condemn the words she used and we must never accept the argument that there’s some sort of hierarchy of racism.
“I will never accept that, the Labour party will never accept that, and that’s why we acted as swiftly as we did yesterday.”
Ms Abbott picked a risky moment to challenge Sir Keir Starmer over whether he will accept her change of heart, following four Labour MPs being suspended yesterday.
He also sacked three trade envoys, all for defying the whip on recent votes and publicly attacking the government’s policies.
Ms Abbott, who entered Parliament in 1987 as Britain’s first black woman MP, also claimed the party leadership had tried to force her out. She said: “I got tremendous support locally. In the end, Keir Starmer and the people around him had to back off.”
She added there had been “hints” she would be offered a seat in the House of Lords if she agreed to step down – but she insisted: “I was never going to do that. And I’m a Labour MP today, and I’m grateful.”
She was eventually issued with a formal warning and required to complete an antisemitism awareness course. Although Labour’s internal investigation concluded in early 2024, she was only readmitted in May. She remains the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House.
