Labour’s civil war is threatening to reignite today after Diane Abbott was cut adrift for comparing the persecution of Jews to the bullying of redheads.
The former shadow home secretary had the party whip withdrawn by Keir Starmer despite issuing a grovelling apology for the remarks.
In a letter to the Observer, she argued that while white people could suffer from ‘prejudice’ for ‘points of difference’ such as hair colour they were not ‘all their lives subject to racism’.
Following a backlash, she apologised for any ‘anguish’ caused claiming ‘errors arose’ in her initial draft letter to the newspaper.
Keir Starmer has suspended the party whip pending an investigation – but left-wing campaign group Momentum has insisted it should be restored.
If the sanction is not reversed Ms Abbott will be barred from standing as Labour’s candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, an area she has represented since 1987, at the next election.
Her close ally Jeremy Corbyn has already been told he will not be the candidate in Islington North after having the whip removed.
Diane Abbott (pictured) had the Labour whip withdrawn by Keir Starmer despite issuing a grovelling apology for the remarks
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’
The controversial remarks plunged Labour into a fresh anti-Semitism row, following years of accusations dogging Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
Ms Abbott 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.’
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.’
However, the Momentum group tweeted: ‘Diane was right to apologise for her comments this morning. The Party should now accept the apology and restore the whip.’
In a round of interviews this morning, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said Sir Keir is ‘determined to turn the page on some of the culture that had been in the Labour Party before he became leader’.
Disciplinary matters on Ms Abbott’s future ‘will be a matter for the chief whip and the leader’, he told BBC Breakfast
Ms Abbott has had the Labour whip suspended after comments she made suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people are not subject to racism ‘all their lives’.
Mr McFadden told the programme: ‘I have been saying for some time that the Labour Party needed to change from the period before when Sir Keir Starmer became leader; if anything, yesterday’s events underline that need for change.
‘When we elected a new leader three years ago, it wasn’t just a matter of having a new person in a different suit with the same world view, culture and policies – all of that had to change. Yesterday’s events really reinforce the need and the extent of that change.
‘Keir Starmer is determined to do that. He is determined to turn the page on some of the culture that had been in the Labour Party before he became leader, and I’m sure that he will be resolved to make that change even more emphatic after yesterday’s events.’
Greg Hands, the Conservative Party chairman, said the ‘disgusting comments downplay the anti-Semitism constantly faced by Jewish people’.
Frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth called the remarks ‘deeply offensive, deeply wrong’.
Sir Keir has suspended the party whip pending an investigation – but left-wing campaign group Momentum has insisted it should be restored
Sir Keir (pictured) is said to be ‘determined to turn the page on some of the culture that had been in the Labour Party before he became leader’.
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.’
