Diane Abbott is unlikely to regain the Labour whip after “doubling down” on comparing the prejudice faced by Jews to that faced by people with ginger hair, The Times understands.
Abbott, who has represented Hackney North & Stoke Newington since 1987 and is the longest-serving female MP, has said the Labour leadership wants her out of the party.
But senior party sources said they were in “uncharted territory” after she initially apologised for her comments to be readmitted to Labour last year, only now to say she did not regret what she had said.
The party source said that in contrast to the four other MPs suspended by Labour this week, there was not a clear route back for Abbott.
They said: “It’s a hard one and it’s pretty uncharted territory to suspend someone for something they previously apologised for and then they double down on it. I just don’t know how you resolve that kind of thing.
“Either her, or people around her, are just determined to blow it up and prefer to see her martyred, which is a dreadful way to approach things.”
In a letter to The Observer in April 2023, Abbott wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people “undoubtedly experience prejudice” that is “similar to racism”. But she added: “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.”
Abbott said it was “obvious” that the Labour leadership wanted her out of the party
SIPA US/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
Abbott withdrew the comments and apologised for “any anguish caused”, saying the letter had been a draft published in error. However, asked in an interview broadcast on Thursday whether she regretted the comments that led to her suspension, she told BBC Radio 4: “No, not at all.”
In the interview, which was recorded in May, she told James Naughtie: “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 [their background]. 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.”
In a statement to the BBC’s Newsnight after the latest suspension emerged, she said: “It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.”
• Keir Starmer suspends Labour MPs for ‘breaches of discipline’
Responding to her comments, James Murray, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said that was “absolutely not the case”.
He told Times Radio: “Diane has made some comments which come on the back of or refer to previous comments which she made and which she apologised for some time ago.
“There are processes in place within the Labour Party to handle issues like this and they need to be looked into and whilst they’re being looked into, the person being looked into needs to be administratively suspended … we all really want this to be resolved as swiftly as possible.”
Another senior Labour source said Abbott had lost the whip for “doubling down on something she previously had the whip withdrawn for”. They added that she “shouldn’t be immune because she’s the mother of the house” — the title given to the longest-serving female MP.
The decision about whether to allow Abbott back could be some time away because she was initially suspended for 13 months. However, it will be seen as a test of how determined Sir Keir Starmer is to stamp out ill-discipline in the party, given Abbott’s suspension came after four other Labour MPs had the whip removed for “persistent breaches of party discipline”.
It will also set the prime minister on a collision course with those left-wing MPs close to Jeremy Corbyn, who have so far resisted joining the former Labour leader’s promise of a new political party. Several of them backed Abbott last time and are likely to push for Starmer to allow her to sit as a Labour MP again.
Starmer stood by the suspension of other Labour MPs over rebellions on welfare and planning. He said on Thursday: “We have to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip because, everyone was elected as a Labour MP on the manifesto of change, and everybody needs to deliver as a Labour government.”
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said she was disappointed that Abbott had sought to “double down” on the comments she made in 2023. Rayner told The Guardian they were a “real challenge” and “not good”.
Protesters outside Hackney Town Hall in east London last May demanded she be allowed to stand for Labour at the general election
ALISHIA ABODUNDE/GETTY IMAGES
Starmer was urged to put pressure on Abbott to stand down as an MP. Alex Hearn, from the Labour Against Antisemitism campaign, said that if Abbott remained unrepentant “then it’s difficult to see how she can remain in place”.
He said: “Keir Starmer condemned her original comments as ‘antisemitic’ at the time and has promised zero tolerance on the subject. Abbott will always hold a historic place as Britain’s first black female MP, but Keir Starmer should now expect her to do the right thing and stand down.”
• Tomiwa Owolade: For one who knows the pain of racism, Diane Abbott shows such ignorance
Pressed by Naughtie in the Radio 4 interview on whether she believed she had done anything wrong, she said: “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.”
Abbott maintained that she had “spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting antisemitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency”.
Her seat in north London has one of the highest proportion of Jewish residents in the UK, many of whom live in Stamford Hill.
However, after her initial suspension, Abbott’s supporters pushed for her to be reinstated. She said: “I got tremendous support locally. We had a big rally on the steps of Hackney Town Hall. And in the end Keir Starmer and the people around him had to back off because of the support I had from the community.”