A NEW PETITION to reinstate Diane Abbott has been launched by Labour activists battling to save the legendary MP, who was the first Black woman elected to parliament.
Ms Abbott, Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP for 36 years, potentially faces the end of her political career after the party suspended her last month over a letter to the Observer which caused controversy.
The groups Labour Black Socialists (LBS) and the Campaign Against Anti-Black Racism in the Labour Party (CAALP) have teamed up in an effort to get the whip restored to Ms Abbott.
Ms Abbott had already been reselected by her local party members but there are fears if she remains without the whip then officials would deny her the chance to run again at the next election.
The Voice is supporting the campaign to reinstate Diane Abbott, and urges our readers to sign the petition.
Click here to sign
LBS and CAALP are calling on people – whether they are party members or not – to support demands to keep Ms Abbott as MP, with one member saying: “She has consistently been on the right side of history, including when her party hasn’t been, such as opposing the Iraq invasion, benefit cuts, or standing up against racism.”
Ms Abbott was suspended as a Labour MP last month after her letter to the Observer newspaper suggested anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsy and Traveller bias was “prejudice” while anti-Black bias was racism.
She immediately tweeted an “unreserved apology”, saying the letter was an initial draft sent in error, and adding 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.” But hours later Labour suspended her.
Ms Abbott, who has suffered more online abuse than any other MP, and has previously spoken about its impact, has a long track record of speaking out against anti-Semitism and any Gypsy, Roma and Traveller abuse.
Lucie Scott, a Labour member in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, told The Voice: “Diane has been unanimously reselected. We want her as our MP, she has one of the biggest majorities in the country, we want Diane Abbott to continue to be our MP.”
Chris Khamis from Labour Black Socialists added: “Diane has been a spokesperson for all her constituents, and for Black communities more widely. We, in Labour Party Black Sections and Black communities across the country, fought for years to get her selected and elected, and she must not be removed to satisfy factional sensibilities.”
The new petition, on 38 Degrees, calls on party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell to reinstate Ms Abbott, arguing: “As a lifelong campaigner for equality and justice, Diane Abbott has been at the forefront of anti-racism campaigns, giving voice to the voiceless and lending her support to communities and families who have been victims of racist policing, school exclusions, deaths in custody, racist attacks, murders and the hostile environment policies of successive Tory governments.”
Ms Abbott established the annual London Schools and the Black Child conferences which influenced education policy under the last Labour government to tackle under-achievement of Black boys, and over decades has been vocal about deaths in custody and disproportionate stop and search rates.
She has also campaigned for victims of the Windrush scandal, and was one of the few MPs to vote against the law, which Labour introduced, that set the ball rolling which led to the scandal as the Conservatives ramped up their ‘hostile environment’ for immigrants.
She served as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Home Secretary from 2016 until the last general election.
LBS praised Ms Abbott for being at the forefront of efforts to push Labour to tackle anti-Black racism in the party following the Forde Report, which also found that Ms Abbott had herself been subjected to vile racist comments on a WhatsApp group used by senior party officials.
Black members point to inconsistencies in how the rules are applied, including a leading frontbencher who was promoted after using an anti-Semitic trope to describe a Jewish Tory donor.
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19 Comments
Diane doesn’t deserve this treatment by the Labour Party
Diane has done nothing wrong
Diane knows more than most what constantly being racially abused means, she’s apologised for her badly worded letter, she should have the whip returned to her immediately
The petition has been disabled “because of inappropriate content”
She sets it as it is
I am so angry at the way the Labour Party is now run. Anti-black,anti Muslim and anti Left. It is like the McCarthy era.
Solidarity, stop taking action against true socialists.
Labour demonstrating Starmer’s hierarchy of racism. Reinstate Diane.
Against the witch hunt!
Reinstate Diane
For the most racially abused mp In parliamentary history to be accused of racism is a new low even for kieth starmer.
Reinstate Diane immediately.
Can’t somebody run against this Starmer fellow?
The Holborn constituency is eminently winnable
Reinstate Diane immediately.
Additionally, somebody stand in the Holborn and St Pancras constituency. You’ll get plenty of votes and this Starmer fellow’s racism will be history
A General Election will take place within eighteen months.
For this cause I plead with all Voice Readers; and all of His Majesty’s African, and African-Caribbean, and the mighty army of Dual- heritage African, Caribbean and Caucasian Subjects, to observe how Sir Kier Starmer, and his Labour Party has treated the Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP.
For commenting on the historical distinction between skin-colour driven prejudice, segregation and racism, as experienced by African-heritage Subjects, and oppression and prejudice that is fuelled by being informed that the subject is Catholic; or Caucasian-Jewish or a traveller, the Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP has been expelled from Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party.
If this is how the Labour Party treats it highest profile African-heritage female Parliamentarian, is the Labour Party the natural home for England’s African-heritage Subjects to place our vote at the next General Election?
His Majesty’s African, and African-Caribbean, and Dual-heritage African, Caribbean and Caucasian Subjects, need to critically assess if Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party is the natural home for the votes and support of England’s African-heritage voting Subjects.
The thing is, I have to say I’m an American who’s history she referenced repeatedly while saying Romani don’t suffer racism. She failed to acknowledge Jim Crow laws applies to ALL non white people in the US, whom Romani (Roma Gypsy) are, and historically many haven’t present as white in British society either. Literally Romani are from India. As an American very well educated on the history of racism and segregation in the U.S. she is uneducated and should not reference my country’s history unless she wants to learn the full story which she hasn’t. Even slavery, chatel slavery, here wasn’t exclusively black people, the largest yes, but not the only diaspora. Equality is everyone equal on every level. Not one minority mattering more than others and her lack of understanding of the full history she referenced says she doesn’t have that understanding. She has done good, but she’s also shown she has a bias and treats equality like an oppression Olympics and that’s a BIG problem. My husband is British and I’m glad we didn’t move there, for all our problems here, at least minorities in general actually do work together, they don’t throw others under the bus to claim the biggest victim card. She seriously also NEEDS to educate herself much better on British Roma history, the abuse in it is frankly absurd (being hung for existing in England is a great example, 2 year of slavery if caught, exported from England as slaves and more). She may have been a first at a lot, but that doesn’t mean her time isn’t in the part when she was doing good, what she seems to prefer now with her words is to harm as long as she has the biggest suffrage trophy and that’s frankly wrong.
This petition is down. Where is one that is working?
Here it is: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/reinstate-diane
I will vote Labour in the next General Election .. only if Diane Abbot & Jeremy Corbyn are both in the Labour Party ..
I suggest you all go back and rejoin the Respect Party.