Diane Abbott ‘free’ to run for Labour in general election, says Starmer
Keir Starmer says there is nothing preventing the veteran MP Diane Abbott from standing at the election
Diane Abbott is “free” to stand as a Labour candidate in the general election, Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader had previously repeatedly declined to say whether he wanted Abbott to stand for his party, instead saying a decision had not yet been made and that it was a matter for the national executive committee.
But he confirmed Abbott is now “free to go forward as a Labour candidate,” after moving to clarify the saga on Friday afternoon.
He added:”She’s been a trailblazer, she has carved a path for other people to come into politics and public life.
“The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.”
Earlier on Friday, Starmer had said:”“In relation to Diane Abbott, as I’ve said before, no decision’s been taken to bar her and she’s obviously now got the whip back.”
It remains to be seen whether Abbott does indeed decide to stand as a candidate at the general election, having represented the Hackney seat for 37 years.
At a rally outside Hackney Town Hall earlier this week she said the party had not communicated with her personally, but she was “shocked to learn yesterday that I’m going to be banned from running” for Labour.
“The national party is insisting that I be banned,” she said, adding: “They haven’t given a reason for banning me. They just want me excluded from Parliament”.
“I am so shocked. And so alarmed about what is going on. Because it is as if you are not allowed to be a Labour MP unless you’re prepared to repeat everything the leader says”.
Abbott,70, was given back the Labour whip on Tuesday after being suspended in April last year over a letter written to the Observer newspaper in which she likened the discrimination suffered by Jewish people, the Irish and Travellers.
The party’s investigation was reportedly completed in December, after which she apologised and reportedly undertook antisemitism training.
Earlier on Friday, Peter Kyle, the shadow science and technology secretary, said there was “no one more than those of us in the Labour Party that respects what Diane Abbott has achieved”.
He told Times Radio: “There’s a standards issue that has been unfolding lately. That standards issue wasn’t there in the past, that’s something that has emerged recently and we have processes under way, a fully independent process indeed that kicked off this whole situation which is going through.
“We are responding to a situation that Diane herself got herself in to, that process is going to be dealt with in the next couple of days by the NEC [national executive committee].”
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