Diane Abbott has launched a stinging attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, claiming that her status as a Black woman means she “will not get a fair hearing” over an “antisemitic” letter she wrote.
The veteran MP was stripped of the Labour whip in April after she suggested that Jewish people are not subjected to the same racism as some other minorities.
Breaking her silence on the row in a statement posted to social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, she slammed the party’s investigation into her comments as “fraudulent”.
Ms Abbott claimed that the current Labour leadership under Sir Keir – who in the days following the letter’s publication told ITV he had a “gut feeling” that her comments were antisemitic – has little interest in fairness or natural justice.
Keir Starmer told ITV he had a ‘gut feeling’ that the comments in Diane Abbott’s letter were antisemitic— (Getty)
She wrote: “The internal Labour Party disciplinary against me is fraudulent. I was told by the chief whip to ‘actively engage’ with an investigation. But the Labour whips are no longer involved – it is now run entirely out of the Labour Party HQ, which reports to Keir Starmer – and there is no investigation.
“This is the same Keir Starmer who almost immediately pronounced my guilt publicly. This completely undermines any idea that there is fairness or any natural justice. It is procedurally improper.”
She concluded: “I am the longest serving Black MP. Yet there is a widespread sentiment that as a Black woman, and someone on the left of the Labour Party, that I will not get a fair hearing from this Labour leadership.”
Ms Abbott, who served as shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, said she “immediately and unreservedly” apologised for the letter after it was published in The Observer on 23 April. At the time, she added that it had been an “initial draft” sent by mistake.
The letter stated that Jewish, Irish and Traveller communities had experienced “prejudice”, but added: “This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.”
The letter continued: “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.”
Despite Ms Abbott’s apology, amid widespread outrage, she was suspended from the party by Labour’s chief whip Alan Campbell as an investigation was announced into her comments.
A Labour spokesperson said at the time: “The Labour Party completely condemns these comments, which are deeply offensive and wrong. The chief whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott pending an investigation.”
Ms Abbott’s latest statement goes on to say that she has so far not been accused by Labour of antisemitism “because they know it is untrue”. Instead, she said, “It has been used to smear me, my reputation, and my decades of anti-racism work.
“Taken together, the procedural impropriety, Starmer’s pronouncement of my guilt, the four-month delay in the investigation, the repeated refusal to try to reach any accommodation, all point in the direction that the verdict has already been reached.”
She continued: “It is no secret that a large proportion of the racism that the Forde Report uncovered was personally directed at me.”
The Forde Inquiry, set up to look into allegations detailed in a party dossier leaked in April 2020, found that while Labour had made “some progress” on areas such as sexism, fewer improvements had been made where racism was concerned.
The dossier revealed private WhatsApp conversations between officials who referred to Ms Abbott as “repulsive”, and concluded that their comments were “expressions of visceral disgust, drawing on racist tropes”, adding that they bore “little resemblance to the criticisms of white male MPs elsewhere in the messages”.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party rightly expects the highest standards of behaviour from its elected representatives, and has introduced an independent complaints process to investigate cases.
“We do not give a running commentary on ongoing investigations.”
