SUSPENDING Diane Abbott on the same day a far-right mob attacked police and anti-racists reveals Labour's “rank hypocrisy,” Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) said yesterday.

The campaign group slammed the party for censuring Britain’s first black woman MP and leading anti-racist while its leader, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, stoked anti-immigrant sentiment with a speech implying Britain was becoming “an island of strangers.”

Anti-racists were surrounded by masked far-right thugs on Thursday night after staging a counter demonstration to an anti-immigration protest outside a hotel in Epping, Essex.

Riot police swarmed the streets after police vans were vandalised and officers assaulted by groups of men trying to reach the hotel.

SUTR co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “On the same evening as a violent racist riot targeting asylum-seekers erupted outside the Bell Hotel in Epping Forest, Labour decided to suspend Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP and a leading anti-racist.

“The government has lost its bearings on racism.” 

Fellow co-convener Weyman Bennett said: “Politicians from Reform UK and Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech are giving confidence to the far right and creating a tinder box racist atmosphere in Britain. 

“Anti-racists stopped the far-right riots last summer and are now warning of a repeat of that racist violence.”

SUTR said that more than 400 far-right protesters gathered outside the Bell Hotel before attacking its peaceful demonstration to chants of “send them back” and “refugee scum off our streets.”

Local Reform UK councillor James Regan, from Ongar Town Council, as well as known fascists from Blood and Honour, Combat 18 and the BNP were among the demonstrators while Britain First flags and T-shirts were also seen, SUTR said.

This followed another violent demonstration on Sunday, where anti-racists were attacked and two security guards at the hotel were seriously assaulted. 

Police investigators as treating them as racially aggravated and have arrested a man on suspicion of affray.

The latest riot took place hours after an asylum-seeker appeared in court charged with three counts of sexual assault. 

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, from Ethiopia, who denies the offences, faces trial next month at Chelmsford magistrates’ court.

Sir Keir suspended the whip from the Mother of the House after she told BBC Radio 4’s Reflections: “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.”

Labour was contacted for comment.