It has been 13 months since the Labour party suspended Diane Abbott for comments about which groups do and do not experience racism. Since then there has been endless speculation about the political future of Britain’s first black female MP, who has spent nearly four decades in Westminster.
On Wednesday, that question became further obscured after Abbott announced she had been handed back the Labour whip, but would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate – a decision Keir Starmer later denied. Abbott insisted she would continue as an MP for “as long as I’m allowed to”.
In her east London constituency, some said they felt Abbott, who was first elected to parliament in 1987, has been treated unfairly and called the move by Labour “outrageous”. Others said the party was adopting a risk-avoidant approach before the election, at the cost of losing Abbott and what she represents.
“I heard this morning and I’m furious. I’m absolutely furious, I feel quite sick to my stomach,” said Colette Zacca, 61, who has lived in Stoke Newington for more than 45 years. “Keir Starmer is not Labour. I’m not voting for whoever he puts in there. He’s just lost a vote.”
Abbott was suspended from the party in April last year over a letter in the Observer suggesting that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people were subjected to prejudice but not racism – comparing it to the experiences of people with red hair. She later apologised, saying she wished to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw” her remarks. She was still an independent when parliament was prorogued for the general election on 4 July.
It emerged on Tuesday that Labour’s national executive committee completed its investigation in December – despite Starmer saying this week that the investigation into her conduct was incomplete – when Abbott was given a formal warning and told to complete an online antisemitism training course in February.
Speaking at a rally of her supporters on the steps of Hackney town hall on Wednesday evening, Abbott said she was not going to let herself be “intimidated or frightened by forces beyond all of our control”.
“I promise you that, as long as it is possible, I will be the member of parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington,” she said.
Jacqueline McKenzie, a lawyer at Leigh Day and a friend of Abbott, said she was extremely disappointed and concerned by the treatment “meted out” to the MP, who has given nearly five decades to the party.
“In all this time, Diane has suffered anguish and the party ought to have treated someone with her record of her service and her historical significance, with greater dignity and respect,” said McKenzie.
“Then we’ve had Diane saying she’d been told that the whip was being restored but that she’d be disbarred, but today, Labour is saying something else. It’s undignified and untenable and begs the question: who is driving this process?”
Amita Macha, 57, who has lived in Stoke Newington since 1992, called the decision unfair, particularly after the years Abbott has served as a Labour MP and her advocacy for underrepresented constituents, including ethnic minorities.
“She’s done what she believes in, she’s not scared to say what she thinks, and of course that’s not going to make everyone happy. It’s going to piss people off, but good for her. I’m a strong advocate for speaking out for what we believe in,” said Macha while hailing a bus on Stoke Newington High Street.
For Gwen, 54, who has lived Abbott’s Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency for 27 years, the decision is “outrageous”.
“I think the Labour party have obviously lost their mind,” said Gwen, who chose not to give her surname. “As a black woman myself I feel that, has it got anything to do with her being a black woman?”
While the Labour party’s treatment of Abbott has provoked significant backlash in her constituency, whether it will sway voters in the 4 July election away from Labour remains uncertain. Some said they would vote Labour despite feeling Abbott had been treated “badly”, while others, expressing dissatisfaction with Starmer’s Labour, were considering voting Green.
Tay Afsar, 32, has lived in Hackney for the past 10 years. He said that after moving to London from Manchester, where his working-class household had always voted Labour, he had since swayed “more Green”.
While Afsar supports Abbott, his support for the Labour party changed, he said, with the departure of the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is standing as an independent candidate for Islington North. In 2020 Labour withdrew the whip from Corbyn after he claimed antisemitism in the party had been overstated.
“I just think it’s Keir Starmer. I’m not the biggest fan of him,” said Afsar after taking a bite of his bagel. “Labour, I feel even though it’s better than the Tories, I’m just going to vote for Green probably this year.”
Paul Ely, a management consultant who has lived in Stoke Newington for 33 years, said he believed Labour was on a “risk avoidance course” so as not to give the Conservatives ammunition before the general election.
“I’d like to think that they’re big enough, broad enough, to be able to include Diane Abbott at the end of the day, given what she represents,” said Ely, 66.
“There are very few people from ethnic minority backgrounds in positions of power in politics and certainly in business and perhaps all the key decision-making walks of life, so I’m not sure we can afford to lose somebody like her”
His vote, however, remains with Labour: “I’m just desperate to get rid of the Tories. So whatever it takes, that is what I’m going to do.”
• This article was amended on 30 May 2024. An earlier version said that Diane Abbott was suspended from the party in April last year over a letter suggesting that Jewish people and Travellers were subjected to prejudice but not racism. This omitted to include Irish people.
