Diane Abbott has reportedly been readmitted as a Labour MP, though it remains uncertain if she will stand for the party at the upcoming general election. Abbott was suspended in April 2023 after suggesting in a newspaper column that Irish, Jewish, and Traveller people do not face racism throughout their lives. The suspension meant that she could not represent Labour on July 4 of the same year, with party officials attempting to broker a deal by which she would regain the whip in exchange for standing down. It is unclear if Abbott has agreed to this arrangement. The Labour candidate for the Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat has yet to be announced.
Labour launched an investigation into Abbott’s comments in April 2023. In its December 2023 report, the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) issued Abbott with a “formal warning” for “engaging in conduct that was in the opinion of the NEC, prejudicial and grossly detrimental to the Labour Party”. It also required her to complete an online antisemitism awareness course, which she did in February 2024. Abbott served as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow home secretary, and was the first black woman elected to Parliament in 1987. Corbyn himself was suspended from the party last year after claiming that accusations of antisemitism within its ranks had been exaggerated by his opponents, and will contest his seat as an independent candidate.
Labour is currently in the process of selecting candidates before a meeting to endorse them next week, after which nominations will legally close on Friday. Abbott’s readmission has astonished supporters of Momentum, the left-wing campaign group established to back Corbyn’s leadership. In a statement, the group said it would be “outrageous” for the party not to select Abbott as a candidate, given that it had readmitted her as an MP. Labour’s complete list of candidates will be endorsed on Tuesday, after which Parliament will be formally shut down, commencing the five-week election campaign ahead of polling day
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