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Moving beyond factional-point scoring
As Diane Abbott retains her ability to stand for Labour in the general election, it is a suitable juncture to consider racial issues and their complexities among different groups, says NICK WRIGHT
Diane Abbott during the Pride Of Britain Awards in 2018

RISHI SUNAK’S reaction to Diane Abbott’s exquisite victory over Starmer’s hit squad was to claim that Angela Rayner — who openly sided with the persecuted Hackney MP against Starmer — was now in charge of Labour.

She isn’t, of course. But she does have something of an independent mandate in that she was directly elected to her deputy post and was notionally a concession to the idea that Labour remained a broad church.

The price she has paid for remaining little more than a decoration to the new regime is to be incrementally compromised by Starmer’s serial betrayals, staying silent while he and Rachel Reeves firmed up their neoliberal economic policies.

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