Diane Abbott: no regrets about 2023 ‘Jews, travellers and Irish people’ letter

Labour has said it is taking new comments from Diane Abbott “incredibly seriously”, after the veteran MP said she did not look back with regret at 2023 comments about Jews, travellers and Irish people which saw her suspended from the party.

In an interview with the BBC, Diane Abbott was asked about a letter she sent to the Observer at the time, in which she said that Jews, Irish people and travellers did not suffer from racism, but rather from prejudice, comparing it to the type of prejudice that “redheads” might receive..

At the time, Abbott issued an apology, claiming that the letter sent to the Observer had been an early draft, sent in error. She was suspended from Labour from more than a year, and was only let back in close to the 2024 general election.

However, in comments published by the BBC today, Abbott, who is currently the longest serving female member of Parliament responded to a question as to whether she regretted the letter by saying “no, not at all.”

Both the BBC, and Abbott herself, appeared to recharacterize the incident, suggesting that Abbott had instead said that the three groups instead “experienced racism in a different way” than people of colour did.

The MP for Hackney South and Stoke Newington told the BBC: “clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“You don’t know unless you stop to speak to them or you’re in a meeting with them.

“But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. They are different types of racism.”

Despite Abbott’s claims this week, her 2023 letter said that “many types of white people” are “not all their lives subject to racism”, citing the pre-civil rights US South, Transatlantic slavery and Apartheid South Africa to back up her point.

Dave Rich, Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust, described Abbott’s latest interpretation of her 2023 remarks as “misleading.

“Abbott’s letter did not say that the racism suffered by Jews and Travellers is different from that suffered by black people. She wrote that Jews and Travellers do not suffer racism at all, but merely prejudice similar to that suffered by redheads.

“That’s why it was so offensive, factually wrong, and demeaning.”

A JLC spokesperson said: “At a time when antisemitism is at record levels in the UK, Diane Abbott’s comment that Jews only experience prejudice similar to that faced by redheads was, in equal parts, absurd and offensive. Given that Abbott represents a large and visibly Jewish community, that has been the victim of countless assaults, kidnapping attempts and other attacks in recent years, she ought to be aware of the dangers of antisemitism. She seems to have a blind spot when it comes to Jews.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We take these comments incredibly seriously, and will assess them in line with Labour Party’s rules and procedures.”

During her interview with the BBC’s James Naughtie, Abbott, who memorably described antisemitism in Labour as a “smear” on national television in 2016, said that she gets “a bit weary of people trying to pin the antisemitic label on me because I’ve spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting antisemitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency.”

Earlier this month, Abbott was criticised after referring to the IDF as the “Jewish Defence Forces” in a tweet claiming it was “gunning down Palestinians as they queue for food”. At the time, the Labour response was that “all complaints are taken seriously and assessed in line with the Labour Party’s rules and procedures.”