UK Labour again suspends lawmaker for defending remark on racism and Jews

Diane Abbott was suspended by Labour in 2023 for saying Jews were ‘not all their lives subject to racism’

LONDON — The UK Labour Party again suspended Diane Abbott, the country’s longest-serving female lawmaker, on Thursday after she said she had no regrets about earlier remarks in which she said Jews were “not all their lives subject to racism.”

A leading figure in British left-wing politics and the first Black woman to be elected to parliament, Abbott, 71, was initially suspended by Labour in 2023 for drawing a contrast between racism and prejudice faced by Jews and other groups.

Abbott had written in a letter to the Observer publication that Irish, Jewish, and Traveller (Roma) people all “experience prejudice” that is “similar to racism.” She then wrote, “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.”

“At the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships,” she added.

Abbott later tweeted that she wanted to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks,” saying that an initial draft of the letter had been sent in error.

“Racism takes many forms and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects,” she said.

Jeremy Corbyn, second from left, sits with his then-advisers, former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner, as he leads a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet in Salford, northwest England, on September 2, 2019. (Danny Lawson / POOL / AFP / File)

Following a backlash within Labour, Abbott was admitted back into the party only weeks before the national election in July 2024, which it won.

Asked on Thursday in an interview if she looked back on the whole incident with regret, she told BBC Radio: “No, not at all.”

“Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about color and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“But if you see a Black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re Black. They are different types of racism,” Abbott said.

A spokesperson for Labour, which is led by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said that Abbott had been administratively suspended pending an investigation.

Starmer has vowed to rid Labour of antisemitism after the party faced accusations of discrimination and harassment against Jews under former leader Jeremy Corbyn. Abbott served as shadow interior minister under Corbyn.

Starmer has also suspended other Labour lawmakers over the course of his year-old premiership, including four on Wednesday for organizing a rebellion against the government’s welfare reforms.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this article.