Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Labour Party for a second time after she defended past comments suggesting that racism based on skin colour differs from prejudice faced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers. The veteran MP now faces an investigation into her remarks, which she made during a BBC Newsnight interview on Thursday.
In the interview, Abbott, the first black woman elected to Parliament, said: '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.' She added that it was 'silly' to claim that racism about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.
Labour sources said the decision to suspend Abbott was made swiftly, and that she was not offered an opportunity to retract her remarks. Abbott responded in a statement: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. My comments in the interview … were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.'
The suspension comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeks to tighten party discipline, having recently suspended four other Labour MPs for repeatedly voting against the government, including on welfare reform. Starmer insisted he would not be 'deflected' from his reform agenda, stating: 'We are elected in to change this country for the better.'
The move has sparked anger among some Labour figures. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell called it 'extremely bizarre' that Abbott was suspended while no action was taken against those who inserted Enoch Powell's racist language into Starmer's speech. Shami Chakrabarti, a longstanding ally, said: 'People who are writing “island of strangers” speeches should be a bit slow to sit in judgment on Diane Abbott.'
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner expressed disappointment that Abbott had defended the comments, saying there was 'no place for antisemitism' within Labour. Abbott first made the remarks in a 2023 letter to the Observer, for which she apologised and was later readmitted after an investigation.
