Diane Abbott is furious as Starmer suggests her suspension has nothing to do with him

Sign up for the View from Westminster email newsletter and receive expert analysis straight to your inbox.

Get our free Westminster View email

Diane Abbott has attacked Sir Keir Starmer, claiming her expulsion from the party had nothing to do with him.

The suspended MP, who represented Labour for 36 years until last April, said the lengthy investigation into her was solely the responsibility of the Labour leader.

“The decision as to whether Diane Abbott will be readmitted to the Labour Party is entirely up to him,” said a message posted on her X account.

This came as Sir Keir confirmed that the Labour Party’s investigation into Ms Abbott will be completed by June 4, a crucial moment for the veteran MP.

“It’s not about what I want… the days of the Labour Party leader rolling up his sleeves and getting involved in disciplinary proceedings are well and truly over,” he told BBC Radio 4. Today program. He added: “That’s what Jeremy Corbyn did and it ended very badly.”

The Labour leader said his party needed to conclude the lengthy investigation “very soon”. “We have a deadline, I believe it is June 4th… we have a process in place and we will now conclude it relatively soon,” he told LBC.

Sir Keir added that the decision would ultimately rest with the ruling Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

An investigation into the long-serving black MP has been ongoing since she was suspended last April over an article she wrote about Jews, and pressure is growing on the party as it faces questions about why the investigation has taken so long.

Last April, Ms Abbott was stripped of her party’s confidence after she stressed in a letter that Jews were not subjected to the same racism as other minorities.

She immediately apologized and said that the letter that was in The Observer it was a “first draft” that was sent by mistake.

Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner and MP Harriet Harman are among those who have called for their party membership to return.

There is growing speculation that Mrs Abbott is hoping to regain her party’s confidence so that she can stand down as a Labour MP at the election; she was elected for the party in Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987.

If she cannot regain the leadership by the June 4 deadline, Ms Abbott will either have to retire as an independent MP or face the party she has represented for three and a half decades.

Labour’s vote of confidence in Ms Abbott would be seen as a peace offering by left-wing MPs and activists, who have long criticised the investigations against her as a farce.

But Sir Keir would thereby be exposed to the accusation that he has failed to sufficiently change the Labour Party since the years under Jeremy Corbyn – a legacy from which the Labour leader is keen to distance himself.

The Independent Mrs Abbott was told that she would be asked to lead the Labour Party again, but she refused because she would have been required to undergo training on anti-Semitism.

She has said the investigations are “fraudulent” and are being used to “intimidate” her.

Mrs Abbott has given no indication that she intends to stand down at the next election.

Sir Keir came under renewed pressure to return the vote of confidence to Ms Abbott after his decision to welcome right-wing Tory defector Natalie Elphicke into the Labour Party.

“If the tent is big enough for her, I am sure that Britain’s first black MP, who has endured more racist and misogynistic abuse than anyone else, will urgently regain her party affiliation,” said Labour MP Shami Chakrabarti. The Independent.