I’ve been barred from standing as Labour MP – Abbott

Diane Abbott has told the BBC she has been barred from standing for Labour at the general election.

The former shadow home secretary was suspended in April 2023 after saying Jewish, Irish and Traveller people do not face racism “all their lives”.

On Tuesday it was revealed her suspension had been lifted following an investigation.

But she told the BBC she will not be allowed to stand for the party in her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat.

Labour has not yet said who its candidate will be in the constituency, which had a Labour majority of more than 33,000 at the last election.

The party is currently selecting remaining candidates ahead of a meeting to endorse them next week, before nominations legally close on 7 June.

Labour launched an investigation in April last year after Ms Abbott wrote in the Observer that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people “undoubtedly experience prejudice” which she said is “similar to racism”.

The letter added: “It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

“But they are not all their lives subject to racism.”

Ms Abbott apologised and withdrew her remarks shortly after they were published.

BBC Newsnight revealed earlier that the party’s investigation was completed in December 2023.

Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) issued her 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 said it expected her to undertake an “online, e-learning module” which a source said was a two-hour antisemitism awareness course.

Ms Abbott did the module in February, after which it is understood she received an email from Labour’s chief whip acknowledging she had completed it.

Ms Abbott, who became the first black woman to be elected to Parliament in 1987, was a close ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and served as his shadow home secretary.

Mr Corbyn, who was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 for saying the scale of antisemitism within Labour’s ranks had been “dramatically overstated” by his opponents, has confirmed he will stand against the party.

He will contest Islington North, which he has held since 1983, as an independent candidate. A complete list of candidates standing in the seat will be available on the BBC website after nominations close.