(Bloomberg) — Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has suspended a veteran left-wing Member of Parliament and launched an investigation into comments she made about anti-Jewish racism, the latest in a spate of ill-discipline dogging the British prime minister.
Diane Abbott, a 71-year-old ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, told the BBC on Thursday that she stood by remarks she made in 2023 which at the time saw her removed from the party for a year.
Abbott had written a letter to a newspaper at the time arguing that Jewish people and Traveler groups experience “prejudice,” but “are not all their lives subjected to racism.” She later apologized and withdrew the claim, which was widely condemned by her Labour colleagues after the years-long anti-Semitism scandal that had engulfed the party under Corbyn.
However, speaking on Thursday, Abbott said that in fact she didn’t look back on the incident with regret. “There must be a difference between racism which is about color and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said on Thursday evening that Abbott would again be suspended by the party pending an investigation. Earlier, they said the party would not tolerate anti-Semitism.
The disciplinary action against Abbott comes just a day after Starmer suspended the Labour whip from four other MPs for disloyalty, in an effort to crack down on dissent in the party following a series of embarrassing U-turns forced by backbench lawmakers.
Speaking earlier when asked about those suspensions, the premier said the government had to “deal with people who repeatedly break the whip,” so that his Labour government could deliver on its plans.
–With assistance from Ailbhe Rea.
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Keir Starmer, Labour Party, anti-Jewish racism, Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn
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