Diane Abbott, the first black woman to become an MP in the UK, announced on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 that the Labour Party has barred her from standing as its candidate in the upcoming general election.
Abbott, who has represented a northeast London constituency since 1987, was suspended by Labour in April last year following controversial comments she made about Irish, Jewish, and Traveller communities not facing racism “all their lives.”
Despite her immediate apology and retraction of the remarks made in a letter to the Observer newspaper, Labour initiated an investigation, the results of which have not been publicly disclosed. Abbott revealed that although she has been readmitted to Labour’s parliamentary ranks, she has been told she cannot run as a Labour candidate in the July 4 election.
“Although the whip has been restored, I am banned from standing as a Labour candidate,” Abbott told the BBC, referring to the formal party allegiance in parliament.
This development poses a potential distraction for Labour, which is favored to regain power in the July election after 14 years. The decision has also highlighted internal divisions within the party and provoked criticism from its left-wing supporters, who are already discontented with the party’s centrist shift under leader Keir Starmer.
Abbott, a respected figure in Labour and a close ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, was appointed as the party’s home affairs spokesperson during Corbyn’s leadership from 2015 to 2020. Corbyn was suspended by Labour in 2020 for not fully accepting the findings of a rights watchdog’s investigation into anti-Semitism within the party under his leadership. He has been sitting as an independent MP since then and recently announced his intention to run as an independent candidate in the upcoming election.
Abbott has not yet indicated whether she will stand as an independent candidate. Starmer has maintained that the disciplinary process is independent and that the decision regarding her candidacy will be made by the party’s executive board. The National Executive Committee is set to finalize the party’s list of candidates next week.
“This is a matter that will have to be resolved by the National Executive Committee and they’ll do that in due course,” Starmer said on Tuesday. However, following Abbott’s comments, Starmer is expected to face further scrutiny regarding her status while campaigning on Wednesday.
