Sir Keir Starmer has said he “utterly condemns” Diane Abbott’s comments on racism as he vowed to “tear out antisemitism” from the “roots” of the Labour Party.
The Labour leader acknowledged the racist abuse Ms Abbott has suffered herself over “many, many years,” but said her comments suggesting Jewish people did not suffer from racism were antisemitic.
Speaking a day after Ms Abbott was suspended from the Labour party over her remarks, Sir Keir said: “In my view what she said was to be condemned, it was antisemitic.”
However, while also condemning her comments, MPs from across the party told The Independent Labour should keep the door open to restoring the whip to Ms Abbott.
One left-wing MP said Ms Abbott could undergo training on antisemitism as a solution, adding that it would be “bad optics” to expel Britain’s first black female MP from the party.
Mr Starmer said Ms Abbott has suffered “a lot of racial abuse over many many years ... that doesn’t take away from the fact that I condemn the words she used and we must never accept the argument that there’s some sort of hierarchy of racism”
He added: “I will never accept that, the Labour Party will never accept that, and that’s why we acted as swiftly as we did yesterday. I said we would tear out antisemitism by its roots – I meant it and that is why we acted so swiftly.”
The row broke out after Ms Abbott said in a letter to The Observer that Jewish, Irish and traveller communities had experienced “prejudice”, but 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.”
Ms Abbott apologised for any “anguish” caused, suggesting “errors arose” in her initial draft letter to the newspaper. Ms Abbott had the Labour whip suspended and the party launched an investigation.
Sir Keir has since come under some pressure to ban Ms Abbott from standing for the party at the next election. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said her suspension “must be the first step towards her expulsion from the party”.
But some Labour MPs, speaking to The Independent, suggested Ms Abbott should be offered a route back into the fold. They said any return of the whip would depend on her response, urging Ms Abbott to “reach out to those who feel very upset” about her remarks.
One loyal to Starmer said: “I think it will be about how she behaves in the coming weeks. If she makes efforts to reach out to those who now feel very upset, and the apology she gave is reinforced and comes across as being genuine, then I think it’s a very different situation to if she does nothing other than what she posted.
“It was good she got the apology out as quickly as she did. There has been an apology, and that is the difference in the case with Corbyn. It would always be a shame to lose one of your bigger beasts, but none of us are bigger than the party.”
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell – who served alongside Ms Abbott in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – called for the party to show “generosity of spirit” when judging Ms Abbott, highlighting her swift apology and decades of campaigning against racism.
Shadow minister Pat McFadden said earlier that Sir Keir, the Labour chief whip, NEC [national executive committee] and Ms Abbott’s local party would all play a role in deciding whether she stands for the party at the next election.
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News: “The way this works in the Labour party is you are picked by your local party, you have to be approved by the NEC [national executive committee]. The chief whip has a big say in that too. So there’ll be a process there.”
Asked about the issue, Sir Keir said: “There’s an investigation in place, I’ve got to let that investigation be completed.”
Lord Mann, an independent adviser to the government on antisemitism, said Ms Abbott’s comments were some of “the most astonishing” he had seen and suggested she would retire at the next election. He added that Ms Abbott’s apology is “only half an apology”.
He told Sky News: “I would anticipate that she will retire now at the next election. She has suffered from racism and to deny the suffering of other groups – the traveller community, the Jewish community – in terms of what they have suffered and continue to suffer and the discrimination against them.”
One MP on the left told The Independent they feared Abbott would be victim of “sectarian score settling” if the suspension goes on for months. “The investigation should be done quickly – the facts and the apology are there, so there’s no need for delay.”
A Labour source said it may be easier for Keir’s team and the National Executive Committee (NEC) to let the local Constituency Labour Party (CLP) decide whether they want Ms Abbott as a candidate because the decision would then be anonymous.
Mr McDonnell, an ally of Ms Abbott, told Tonight with Andrew Marr that the letter was a “terrible, terrible mistake and she knows it”.
He added: “I can completely understand why people are angry but all I can say is that I hope all those now sitting in judgement of her have the generosity of spirit to acknowledge that for decades she has been at the forefront of campaigning against racism and has endured so much herself.”
Meanwhile, other political allies of Ms Abbott have turned their back on the former shadow home secretary, with the founder of the left-wing campaign group Momentum Jon Lansman describing her remarks as “disgraceful”.
He wrote on Twitter: “A disgraceful comment by Diane Abbott for which she has rightly been suspended from the Labour Party. Racism is not a competition!”
