In a statement after her second suspension from Labour, the veteran MP Diane Abbott said it was obvious ‘this Labour leadership wants me out’
Veteran MP Diane Abbott has accused Labour’s leadership of wanting her out of the party in her first public comments since being suspended.
In a statement last night, Ms Abbott said “any fair-minded person” would accept her remarks on racism in an interview were “factually correct”.
The comments came just hours after Labour stripped the whip from the MP – for the second time – pending an investigation.
Ms Abbott, the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, first lost the whip and had a lengthy stint sitting as an independent after she suggested in 2023 that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice but “are not all their lives subject to racism”.
She apologised for those remarks at the time and the whip was eventually restored – just in time to stand as a Labour candidate in the 2024 general election.
In the interview with BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme, which aired this week, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret.
“No, not at all,” she replied.
READ MORE: Diane Abbott suspended by Labour after comments about racism
Ms Abbott added: “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. There are different types of racism.”
She added: “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.”
On Thursday evening a Labour spokesman said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”
But in a statement to BBC Newsnight, Ms Abbott 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.”
Speaking to Times Radio on Friday, the Treasury minister James Murray rejected the claim from Ms Abbott.
He said: “That’s absolutely not the case. What’s happened is Diane has made some comments which come on the back of previous comments which she made and for which she apologised some time ago.”
He added that there was an internal investigation and “we now need to let this process play out” so it can be resolved “as swiftly as possible”.
Ms Abbott is the fifth Labour MP to be suspended this week after Keir Starmer’s decision to strip the whip from four others over discipline breaches.
The PM said the Government “had to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip” after being asked if it was a sign of weakness.
Backbenchers Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff, Brian Leishman and Rachael Maskell were suspended on Wednesday. They were among dozens who rebelled over welfare.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster