Diane Abbott has accused the Labor Party of carrying out a “fraudulent” investigation into her comments on racism which left her suspended from the party.
Abbott, who became Britain’s first black female MP in 1987, claimed the party whips’ office was no longer carrying out a formal investigation. Instead, she claims the internal investigation is “now being conducted entirely by Labor HQ, which reports to Keir Starmer – and there is no investigation”.
His comments could raise eyebrows within the party, given some MPs say he urged officials to allow the senior MP to receive a “respectful farewell”. Others said Abbott should consider stepping down.
Abbott said: “I am the longest-serving black MP. Yet there is a widespread feeling that, as a black woman and a member of the left of the party, I will not be able to get a fair hearing from the Labor leadership.”
A number of senior Labor figures on the right of the party have privately expressed sadness at Abbott’s suspension, recognizing the glass ceilings she has broken, but they feel unable to publicly defend her record.
The 69-year-old MP had Labor withdrawn in April after suggesting that Jews, Irish and Travelers did not experience racism “all their lives”, in a letter to the Observer.
Abbott says she remained silent on the issue during the inquiry, now in its fifth month, because she had hoped that “some sense of decency and recognition of the principles of natural justice might prevail.” “. But she said in a lengthy statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “the Labor Party disciplinary machine has made it clear it has little interest in either”.
The former shadow minister claims Labor’s London regional office closed her constituency party executive committee and replaced its top leaders. “In effect, the Labor apparatus decapitated the elected leaders of the constituency party to install its own hand-picked staff and replace me as candidate before the next election,” she said.
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“This is what some have clearly wanted from the start. Taken together, the irregularity of the proceedings, Starmer’s declaration of my guilt, the four-month delay in the investigation, the repeated refusal to attempt any accommodation, all indicate that the verdict has already been delivered. The crushing of democracy in my local Labor Party is the latest confirmation of this.”
Labor quickly suspended Abbott in April after the letter quickly circulated on X, sparking a huge backlash from senior Tories and religious groups. The long-serving MP had previously apologized “fully and unreservedly”, withdrew her written remarks and said she “wished to distance herself from them”, suggesting “errors had occurred” in what she described as a first draft of a letter to the newspaper.
But justifying the party’s swift action by suspending it, Starmer said the party would never accept “the argument that there is some sort of hierarchy of racism”.
The day after Abbott’s suspension, Starmer said during a visit to a community project in Camberwell, south London: “In my view what she said needed to be condemned, it was anti-Semitic. Diane Abbott 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 is some kind of hierarchy of racism . I will never accept that, the Labor Party will never accept that and that is why we acted as quickly as we did yesterday.”
Rarely, Jeremy Corbyn publicly defended his long-time ally. “The treatment of Diane Abbott – Britain’s first black female parliamentarian – is a disgrace,” he said on X. “This latest case represents yet another blatant attack on local democracy. A lifelong anti-racist activist, Diane deserves so much better. The same goes for party members who are treated with contempt.
Abbott also cited the Forde report, which found that some of the attitudes expressed towards Abbott and other BAME MPs in private WhatsApp messages among staff hostile to Jeremy Corbyn represented “racism and sexism manifest and underlying.
A Labor spokesperson said: “The Labor Party rightly expects the highest standards of behavior from its elected representatives and has an independent complaints procedure in place to investigate cases.
“We do not comment on ongoing investigations. »
theguardian