Support grows for Diane Abbott after whip removed

Legendary MP suspended by Labour over ‘racism’ letter

DIANE ABBOTT received support from some campaigners as she battles to save her political career after being suspended from Labour over a ‘racism’ letter.

The veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington had the Labour whip removed, four hours after tweeting an “unreserved apology” for a letter in The Observer, which she insisted was an “initial draft” that was sent in error.

Professor Kehinde Andrews tweeted in response: “You know we’re in dangerous times when @HackneyAbbott is suspended from @LabourParty for socalled ‘racism’. The letter was badly worded but the sentiment was correct. There is a difference between prejudice, xenophobia and racism #PsychosisofWhiteness“

Ms Abbott’s letter suggested anti-Semitism and anti-gypsy and traveller bias was “prejudice” while anti-Black bias was racism, and her apology clarified that “racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, travellers and so on.”

The Black women’s group Sista Space, which helps women suffering abuse, tweeted: “NO MORE! For decades these cowards have attacked @HackneyAbbott at every opportunity. Take it from one who knows, we face racism & death threats for speaking out. We post our injustices EVERY DAY, nobody says nothing, but dare us have a view… LEAVE BLACK WOMEN ALONE, COWARDS!”

Media anti-racism campaigner and former TV producer Marcus Ryder wrote in a blog that he understood where Ms Abbott was coming from.

He wrote: “Diane Abbott was completely wrong to describe the prejudice that travellers and Jewish people face as equivalent to the prejudice and bigotry redheaded people face, it was crass, offensive, and it was right for her to apologise. When I read her original letter to the Guardian, what I understood her underlying message to be; that the “racism” black people face and “anti-Semitism” are not the same, it is a message I have sympathy with, or at the very least one which I believe should be discussed openly and calmly. Saying one is more or less important than the other is not one I have any sympathy with.”

However, many anti-racism campaigners have either condemned Ms Abbott or stayed silent.

Her letter was responding to an article by Tomiwa Owolade in the Guardian, who wrote: “Anyone who is white is privileged, we are told, and racism only affects people of colour. The problem with this view is that there are certain minorities who are seen as white and yet experience prejudice. In fact, the two groups most likely to say they have experienced racist abuse, according to the survey, are gypsy, traveller and Roma communities and Jewish people.”

The former shadow home secretary, who served under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, continued to receive condemnation, with calls for her to be expelled from the party.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Ms Abbott’s letter “was disgraceful and her apology is entirely unconvincing”.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, accused Ms Abbott of making “appalling, offensive and ignorant” comments.

Jake Wallis Simons from The Jewish Chronicle said that Ms Abbott was trying to “re-define racism as only the experience of Black people.”

A Labour spokesperson 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.”

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By Veron Graham