LABOUR’S election campaign sunk into chaos today as confusion over the status of Diane Abbott’s candidacy deepened.
Despite having been restored to the Labour whip after a spurious 13-month “investigation,” Ms Abbott said that she had been told that she will be prevented from representing the party in her Hackney North seat.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer denied today that she had been blocked, but did not confirm that Britian’s first black woman MP would be the party’s standard-bearer in the constituency she has represented since 1987.
“No decision has been taken,” he claimed, as the lies about the investigation into Ms Abbott and Labour’s factional malice towards the iconic politician finally caught up with it.
The last-minute manoeuvres, which may run until Labour’s national executive meets on June 4 to finally endorse party candidates, came after the BBC had exposed Sir Keir for lying about the probe into Ms Abbott.
The Labour leader had been asserting as late as last week that the investigation into Ms Abbott’s newspaper letter of April 2023 was continuing, when in fact it had been concluded last December.
He has also claimed that Labour’s disciplinary procedures are fully independent, yet since December Ms Abbott’s fate has actually been in the hands of the parliamentary chief whip, answerable to the Labour leader.
Blocking her candidacy would be a Labour “dog whistle” aimed at right-wing and racist voters who have never accepted Ms Abbott’s political legitimacy.
The possibility met with outrage throughout the labour movement and beyond as anger at Sir Keir boiled over.
Leaders of six affiliated trade unions wrote to Sir Keir demanding that Ms Abbott should be “confirmed as the candidate at the general election for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, where she has represented for so long.”
The letter was signed by general secretaries Mick Whelan of Aslef, Maryam Eslamdoust of TSSA, Sharon Graham of Unite, Chris Kitchen of the NUM, Dave Ward of the CWU and Matt Wrack of the FBU.
Left MP Beth Winter condemned the “vindictive, factional and cruel” treatment of Ms Abbott, adding that “she should be allowed to decide whether she will restand.”
Campaign group Momentum declared itself “sickened and disgusted” by the leadership’s move.
“Any pretense that this decision had anything to do with due process or anti-racism is laughable, given both the breaches in proper process we have seen and the blatant double standards on show,” a spokesman said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that Ms Abbott had “been a mentor to many of us but also she’s stood up on issues that aren’t very popular, issues around racial justice and social justice.
“She’s someone who’s done a huge amount for Hackney, for London, for our country. So I think it’s really important that she’s given the respect she deserves.”
And Martin Forde KC, who identified a “hierarchy of racism” within Labour in a report commissioned by Sir Keir, slammed the lack of “transparency” around the investigation and warned of “hurt” within black communities over the “unfair and unnecessarily humiliating process.”
Peer Simon Wooley, long-time leader of Operation Black Vote, said that Labour was “in danger of not only disrespecting one of the most popular MPs in modern times but also if they get this wrong it’ll be a slap in the face for Britain’s African-Caribbean communities.”
Labour NEC member Jess Barnard dubbed the episode a “total farce” and added “people are looking to Sir Keir Starmer to understand what kind of leader he is. I think people would be quite concerned about the absence of justice and fairness in the case of Diane Abbott.”
And a Labour MP called the episode “both chaotic but also profoundly wrong.
“Why did the Labour leader say the investigation was ongoing but clearly it wasn’t?”
Many have noted the contrast between the handling of Ms Abbott’s case and the warm welcome extended to right-wing Tory MP Natalie Elphicke by Labour, as well as the continuing endorsement of candidates who have been found to have expressed racist views.
Labour was standing by one such today, Darren Rodwell, despite it being revealed that he had described criticism of previous racist remarks, for which he had apologised, as a “smear campaign.” He remains Labour’s candidate for Barking.
Anti-racist charity the Runnymede Trust said that “the double standards in the treatment of Diane Abbott is abhorrent.”
Labour MPs across the spectrum feel that Ms Abbott has been treated unfairly by Sir Keir and his right-wing apparatus.
Sir Keir’s denial that a decision had yet been made risks the row overshadowing Labour’s campaign for a while longer, making it a case study in political own-goals.
The saga started with a brief newspaper letter penned by Ms Abbott making points about racism and Jewish people widely deemed offensive, but for which she immediately apologised.
The malicious blundering of Labour’s right has prolonged the issue to the point where it is self-sabotaging.
