Diane Abbott has said she has no regrets about comments on racism that led to her year-long suspension from the Labour party.
The veteran Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was disciplined for writing a letter to the Observer in April 2023 arguing that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives” and in a different way to Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers.
Although she withdrew the comments at the time and apologised for any anguish caused, she was suspended from the Labour party after Keir Starmer said her letter was antisemitic.
Abbott, who was readmitted to Labour before the general election, said that she did not look back on the incident with regret and that she stood by the argument.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme on Thursday, she said: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.
“I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism. I don’t know why people would say that.”
Her remarks came hours after Starmer suspended four Labour MPs from the party whip for repeated breaches of discipline.
Abbott, who as the longest-serving female MP in the Commons has the honorary title of Mother of the House, said she felt “a bit weary” of people labelling her antisemitic and said she had “spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting antisemitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency”.
Asked whether she felt she had been “hung out to dry” by the Labour leadership during the disciplinary process relating to her remarks, she said: “In the end, Keir Starmer had to restore the whip to me.
“I got tremendous support locally. We had a big rally on the steps of Hackney town hall. And in the end Keir Starmer and the people around him had to back off because of the support I had from the community.”
Abbott was readmitted to the party and allowed to stand again in the July 2024 election after party officials failed to broker a deal by which she would get the whip back in return for standing down.
Reports that she would not be allowed to contest her seat as a Labour candidate led to a backlash from MPs and activists. The party’s investigation into her had concluded months earlier but led to no change in her status.
Abbott told the BBC that she was sure that the Labour leadership had been “trying to get me out” and there were “hints” that she would be offered a seat in the House of Lords if she stepped down as an MP.
“I was never going to that. And I’m a Labour MP today, and I’m grateful,” she said.