Keir Starmer is facing calls to expel Diane Abbott from the Labour Party after the former shadow home secretary was accused of ‘spouting hateful anti-Semitism’.
The Labour party has so far gone as far to suspend the 69-year-old veteran MP after she claimed that Jews do not face racism and compared prejudice against them to that suffered by redheads.
She withdrew her comments, which appeared in a letter to The Observer, and said they stemmed from an ‘early draft’ which was published in error.
However, Labour leader Mr Starmer is now under pressure to permanently remove the Corbynite ex-shadow home secretary, according to The Sun.
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps, who is Jewish, condemned Ms Abbott’s comments, writing on Twitter: ‘Once again, Jewish people have to wake up and see a Labour MP casually spouting hateful anti-Semitism. @Keir_Starmer are you actually going to do anything?’
Keir Starmer is facing calls to expel Diane Abbott from the Labour Party after the former shadow home secretary was accused of ‘spouting hateful anti-Semitism’
The Labour party has suspended Ms Abbott (pictured) after she claimed that Jews do not face racism and compared prejudice against them to that suffered by redheads
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps, who is Jewish, condemned Ms Abbott’s comments on Twitter
The controversial remarks plunged Labour into a fresh anti-Semitism row after having faced years of accusations of institutional racism, including from its own former MPs, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
A party spokesman said: ‘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.’
Greg Hands, the Conservative Party chairman, echoed Mr Shapps’ outrage and said the ‘disgusting comments downplay the anti-Semitism constantly faced by Jewish people’.
Frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth called the remarks ‘deeply offensive, deeply wrong’.
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism described Ms Abbott’s comments as ‘outrageous’ and said her suspension from the party was overdue.
They said: ‘She and her allies on the far-Left of the party could never accept how bad anti-Semitism had become because they do not even acknowledge that it is a form of racism. We already made complaints against her, which the Party has never investigated.
‘Her suspension now is past time, and must be the first step towards her expulsion from the party.’
Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge commended the party’s move to swiftly suspend Ms Abbott. She said: ‘Diane Abbott’s letter was deeply offensive and deeply depressing.
‘Keir Starmer’s response is right. No excuses. No delays. The comments will be investigated and she has been immediately suspended.’
Ms Abbott, who has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, is a long-time ally of Jeremy Corbyn (pictured together in 2017)
Fiona Sharpe, of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: ‘Ms Abbott is either woefully misinformed or deliberately bigoted. Neither should be tolerated.’
Another Labour MP added: ‘It’s time she stood down as an MP for her own sake and to do the party a favour.’
And a shadow minister said: ‘There is surely no way back for her, it’s time to kick her out for good.’
Ms Abbott, who has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington in north London since 1987, remains a Labour member, but is suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party.
She will sit in the Commons as an independent. She is a long-time ally of Mr Corbyn, who was kicked out of the party after a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in 2020 criticised Labour’s effectiveness at dealing with anti-Semitism under his leadership.
Mr Corbyn said the scale of anti-Semitism in Labour had been ‘dramatically overstated’ by opponents, and rejected some of the EHRC’s findings. He has been banned from representing Labour at the next general election.
Ms Abbott came under fire after she took issue with claims that Irish people, Jews and Travellers suffer from racism in the UK.
The veteran MP made the controversial comments in a letter to The Observer newspaper as she responded to a recent comment article
Ms Abbott issued a public apology to ‘wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them’
She wrote in her letter to The Observer: ‘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. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.’
She later apologised and sought to ‘disassociate’ herself from her words. She said: ‘The errors arose in an initial draft being sent.
‘But there is no excuse and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused.’
