Diane Abbott: suspended for erroneous reasons?

If you’re unaware of the situation, the UK’s first black female MP – Diane Abbott – has been deprived of Labour’s Parliamentary whip after she penned a letter that correctly pointed out that people of colour suffer racism more habitually than other ethnicities – but did it in a clumsy way.

This Site has published an article about it here.

Public reaction has been split – partly, in This Writer’s opinion, because Ms Abbott is famously the most racially abused member of Parliament. In fact, she receives more racially abusive correspondence than all other MPs put together, so it can hardly be surprising that people who themselves are lower than vermin have latched onto this.

Not only that, but she is a socialist, meaning that members of the right-wing faction that currently controls Labour, together with their supporters, also want her removed from that party. This incident has been their excuse to suspend her, pending an investigation on grounds of anti-Semitism.

There’s just one problem:

Members of their faction have been caught making far more clearly anti-Semitic comments. Like Ms Abbott, they subsequently apologised. Unlike her, their transgressions were instantly forgotten.

Here’s one example:

Claudia Webbe, a socialist MP who now sits as an Independent after being expelled from Labour, has pointed out the similarity, and others have added additional arguments to her words:

So on that level, Labour has no ground on which to continue with Ms Abbott’s suspension.

The other issue is whether her letter was anti-Semitic. Let’s consider:

If you don’t believe that, let’s hear from some Jewish people (although Keir Starmer’s right-wing mob dispute their authenticity – apparently they are the “wrong type of Jew” and you can judge for yourself what that says about the current Labour leadership.

Here‘s Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL):

Her original letter was not antisemitic and the way some critics have rounded on her as if it were is cynical and unhelpful.

As a prominent Black Labour MP she cannot avoid discussing the way Black and Asian people are in the frontline of racist oppression – and the way the Black experience has been downplayed in the Labour Party. This was identified by Martin Forde in his report as a hierarchy of racism.  The wording of Diane’s letter was unfortunate in that it appeared to compare forms of racism. Diane has rightly apologised for this.

All racism is abhorrent – and she has always fought against it. Historically Jews have been major victims – most notoriously in the time of the Holocaust. As Diane says in her tweeted apology, “Racism takes many forms and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others.”

The fight against racism today – certainly in this country – is centred on defence of Black and Asian people. This in no way discounts the experience of Jews. Jewish people in this country of course face prejudice and racism, in particular the Haredim, who in their dress are highly visible, but it is not institutional, structural racism that fundamentally affects their prospects and outcomes.

Yes, Diane’s letter should have been drafted with more care – but this is no ground for suspension from the Labour Party.

So that’s the opinion of (some) Jewish people. That would divest Labour of its other excuse to suspend Ms Abbott – except of course that Keir Starmer couldn’t give two figs about what left-wing Jews have to say.

And that leads us to one last point:

Exactly. This is now a litmus test for Labour’s electability.

If Starmer and his cronies don’t reinstate Ms Abbott, then left-wing voters who traditionally support Labour will know that they no longer have a home there and should not, under any circumstances, vote for that party while Keir Starmer and his team lead it.

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