Diane Abbott has said she will not be allowed to stand in July’s election despite the Labor party being resurrected.
Diane Abbott says she has been barred from standing as a Labour candidate in Britain’s next general election.
Britain’s first black woman MP told the BBC on Wednesday that her suspension, imposed last year over racist comments, has been lifted but the party will not allow her to stand in the July 4 election.
Labour leader Keir Starmer later denied that the party had barred Abbott. No final decision had been made on the issue. Asked about the matter while campaigning in the west of England, Starmer insisted: “That’s not true.”
“No decision has been made to ban Diane Abbott from entering the country,” he said.
Abbott, who was first elected as a Labour MP in 1987, told the British broadcaster in a text message that he would not be allowed to stand. “Although I have been reinstated as the party’s Leader, I am barred from standing as a Labour candidate,” Abbott said.
However, it is unclear whether she had been in direct contact with the Labour Party about the matter, and she later posted on X that she was “deeply disappointed that numerous reports have alleged that I have been barred from standing”.
Mr Abbott was reinstated as a Labour MP on Tuesday after the completion of his party’s investigation into comments he made in a letter to the Observer newspaper in which he said Jews, Irish and Travellers “undoubtedly experience prejudice” but do not face racism “throughout their lives”.
Mr Abbott was suspended despite apologising “unreservedly” for his comments.
Mr Abbott, who served in his London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington for many years, campaigned on issues such as racism, poverty and international affairs, and was a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who led the party from 2015 to 2020.
Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, the left-wing party was investigated by the equality watchdog and found to have serious flaws in its approach to anti-Semitism.
Corbyn was succeeded as party leader by Keir Starmer, who aims to crack down on anti-Semitism.
Corbyn is also barred from standing as a Labour candidate after he said anti-Semitism within the party has been “grossly exaggerated” for political reasons. He announced last week that he would run as an independent.
“Pioneer”
Left-wing Labor opposition lawmakers are outraged by Abbott’s treatment, pointing to the racism and sexism he has faced during his decades in politics.
Jacqueline McKenzie, a human rights lawyer and friend of Mr Abbott, told BBC radio that he should have been accorded “greater respect and dignity than these leaks”.
In March, the Guardian revealed that Frank Hester, a major donor to the ruling Conservative party, had made racist comments about Abbott, saying she made him want to hate all black women and that she “should be shot”.
Mr Starmer defended the MP at the time as a “trailblazer”, saying she had “probably suffered more sustained abuse over more years than any other politician”.
But the Labour leader, who has led the party to the centre, will be wary of allowing the 70-year-old’s case to sow chaos ahead of an election in July that is likely to see Labour return to power for the first time in 14 years.
Hours after Mr Abbott announced he had banned her from standing, Mr Starmer said no final decision had been made about whether she would be able to become a candidate in the election.
Britain’s political leaders last week kicked off a six-week campaign before voting to choose a new government. A poll on voting intentions this week showed the Labour Party leading the ruling Conservative Party by 23 points.
