Abbott's future in the balance as row escalates

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.
More from this author

ANDREW MURRAY wonders whether recent opinion polling and a fresh local authority by-election result in Ilford are an indication that the time is ripe for the left to make inroads

Labour accused of ‘balancing the books off the backs of the poor’ in spring spending statement