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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Toby Helm Political Editor

Keir Starmer says he was ‘shocked’ by Diane Abbott’s letter to the Observer

Diane Abbott has had the Labour whip suspended from her pending an investigation of her letter.
Diane Abbott has had the Labour whip suspended from her pending an investigation of her letter. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Keir Starmer says he could not believe what he was reading when he first saw the letter that Diane Abbott wrote to the Observer suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism for “all of their lives”.

Abbott, who was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow home secretary, wrote that although people “with points of difference” suffer prejudice, they had not suffered the same racism as black people.

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