Labour investigation into Diane Abbott concluded – BBC Newsnight

According to BBC Newsnight, the Labour Party has completed its investigation into Diane Abbott over her comments about racism in the Jewish and Traveller communities.

Britain’s first black MP, representing the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency in London, was suspended from the Labour Party in April 2023.

According to the broadcast, the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) wrote to Ms Abbott in December 2023 to inform her that an investigation into her comments had been completed.

She received a “formal warning” for behaving “in a manner which, in the opinion of the NEC, was prejudicial and highly damaging to the Labour Party”.

Ms Abbott was expected to take part in an online e-learning module, which she completed in February – which the Labour Party leader reportedly confirmed via email.

Campaign group Momentum said the Labour faction “should have been restored already”.

Ms Abbott was an independent MP when Parliament was prorogued on Friday 24 May, ahead of the general election on Thursday 4 July.

A Momentum spokesman said: “This is outrageous news which confirms that the (Keir) Starmer leadership is attempting to force Britain’s first black MP out of Parliament.

“Keir Starmer has been telling us for months that the process was independent and had nothing to do with him.

“Today’s revelation confirms that this is yet another blatant lie from Keir Starmer. The investigation was completed months ago, Diane is still a Labour member and group confidence should therefore have been restored by now.

“Starmer’s behaviour was already insulting and demeaning to a woman he rightly described as a ‘trailblazer’. The first step to making amends is to restore group confidence and allow Diane to stand as the Labour candidate, as local MPs wish.”

Last Friday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News: “The final decision on the candidates will be made in a few days, I think June 4, maybe a little earlier or later, I can’t remember exactly.”

“But within a relatively short period of time the final list of candidates will be decided and that will be a matter for the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.”

Ms Abbott, who has been an MP since 1987, responded in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the trial had “EVERYTHING to do with” Sir Keir.

The long-serving MP was suspended after she responded to an article in the Observer headlined “Racism in Britain is not a black and white problem. It is much more complicated.”

In a letter to the cover, she wrote: “It is true that many white people with special characteristics, such as redheads, can be subject to this prejudice. But they are not exposed to racism their whole lives. In pre-Civil Rights America, Irish, Jews and Travellers did not have to sit at the back of the bus.”

Ms Abbott later said she wanted to “completely and unreservedly retract and distance myself from her comments”.

The Labour Party was asked for comment.