Diane Abbott has confirmed Labour tried to make her stand down before the election in a grubby backroom deal that she said was designed to “humiliate” her.
Some of us have suspected as much since May, when party leader (and now prime minister) Keir Starmer [pictured, with Ms Abbott] was forced to allow her back into the Parliamentary Labour Party after it was revealed that there had been no reason to keep her suspended since December last year.
She said at the time
to the BBC’s Today programme that she was being blocked from standing for re-election as a Labour candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
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Now she has confirmed in a BBC Newsnight interview the offer that was made to her:
Abbott told Newsnight she was indirectly offered a deal through a “third party”, which would have seen her stand down ahead of the election – a deal she said she rejected.
“I think the idea was that they would restore the whip in the morning. And then I would stand down in the afternoon; not the next day, not the next week, but in the afternoon. And I felt that was designed to humiliate me.”
The Labour leadership has denied Ms Abbott’s claim.
But it does fit the narrative we all know, as This Site laid out in May:
First, her membership of the Parliamentary Labour Party was suspended [in April 2023] after she sent a letter to the press that claimed Jews, Irish people and Travellers were unlikely to suffer the lifelong racism faced by black people, because their ethnic differences are not as obvious as skin colour.
Then the facts that her case had been investigated and she had both apologised and carried out an online course on understanding anti-Semitism were (allegedly) hidden from the public in order to allow her suspension to be continued indefinitely.
When matters came to a head with the announcement of a general election on July 4 and he was challenged to clarify Ms Abbott’s position, Starmer claimed that lifting her suspension was a matter for Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).
He almost immediately proved that this was not the case after the BBC’s Newsnight revealed leaked information that her suspension should have been lifted months previously, when he unilaterally decided that she could return to the PLP. So much for the claim that Labour has an independent system to settle disciplinary matters.
Ms Abbott almost immediately put him on the spot again, with a claim to the BBC’s Today programme that she was being blocked from standing for re-election as a Labour candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
On the ropes, Starmer was forced to fall back on his previous claim – that this was a matter for the NEC, which would decide at its meeting on June 4.
Some critics pointed out that this would leave her very little room to manoeuvre if the NEC blocked her; she would have very little time to arrange to be an Independent candidate, if she even wanted to. It seemed – to some – that Starmer was trying to force her out by a back door.
After days of withdrawn statement and redrawn red lines, Starmer has finally agreed that she is “free to go forward as a Labour candidate” for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in the general election on July 4 this year – again pre-empting the NEC and proving that the Leader’s office still wields huge power in the party, even after promising to give it up.
Worse still for the Labour leader is that the current accusation comes on the back of a claim that Starmer treated Ms Abbott as a “non-person” during the row over racist comments made about her by Tory donor Frank Hester.
The Guardian reported in March that the businessman and technology tycoon – who has donated £20m to the Conservative Party since the start of 2023 – said in 2019: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like I hate, you just want to hate all black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”
Ms Abbott said she felt endangered by the remark, saying such comments “wind up a certain sort of nutcase and it makes you more vulnerable”.
As for Keir Starmer, she said he
“never reached out to me personally and did treat me as a non-person”.
“If somebody was threatening to have you shot, you would have felt your party would have offered you more support, giving you advice on safety and security, even kind of commiserated with you. And none of that happened.”
According to the BBC, a Labour spokesperson has said
the prime minister has “great respect” for Abbott and it was “simply wrong to say that there was any plan being pushed by the leadership to force her out”.
“The party, including Keir Starmer, vocally condemned Frank Hester’s vile comments and reached out to Diane at the time to offer support.”
Ms Abbott’s Newsnight interview was due to be broadcast today (Tuesday, September 17, 2024) when that show airs at its usual time of 10.30pm. This Site shall try to obtain a clip to add to this piece.
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Abbott has confirmed Labour tried to make her stand down before the election
Diane Abbott has confirmed Labour tried to make her stand down before the election in a grubby backroom deal that she said was designed to “humiliate” her.
Some of us have suspected as much since May, when party leader (and now prime minister) Keir Starmer [pictured, with Ms Abbott] was forced to allow her back into the Parliamentary Labour Party after it was revealed that there had been no reason to keep her suspended since December last year.
She said at the time
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Now she has confirmed in a BBC Newsnight interview the offer that was made to her:
The Labour leadership has denied Ms Abbott’s claim.
But it does fit the narrative we all know, as This Site laid out in May:
Worse still for the Labour leader is that the current accusation comes on the back of a claim that Starmer treated Ms Abbott as a “non-person” during the row over racist comments made about her by Tory donor Frank Hester.
The Guardian reported in March that the businessman and technology tycoon – who has donated £20m to the Conservative Party since the start of 2023 – said in 2019: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like I hate, you just want to hate all black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”
Ms Abbott said she felt endangered by the remark, saying such comments “wind up a certain sort of nutcase and it makes you more vulnerable”.
As for Keir Starmer, she said he
According to the BBC, a Labour spokesperson has said
Ms Abbott’s Newsnight interview was due to be broadcast today (Tuesday, September 17, 2024) when that show airs at its usual time of 10.30pm. This Site shall try to obtain a clip to add to this piece.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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