Labour’s deputy leader and the UK’s likely next deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has said she would like to see the party whip returned to Diane Abbott, who was suspended almost 11 months ago for comments that downplayed bigotry shown towards Jews, Irish people and Travellers.
Ms Abbott, an ally of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has for several days been at the centre of a separate race storm in UK politics, after derogatory comments emerged from the Tory party’s biggest donor about her as a black woman.
Frank Hester, who has reportedly donated up to £15 million to the Conservatives, said seeing Ms Abbott on television made “you just want to hate all black women”. He also said she should be “shot”. He has apologised for his “rude” comments but denied they were meant to impugn her race.
The uproar over Mr Hester’s remarks, which prime minister Rishi Sunak said were racist, has led to calls for Ms Abbott to be allowed back into the Labour parliamentary party. She has also called for more public support from Labour leader Keir Starmer.
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Ms Rayner was questioned over Ms Abbott’s future as a Labour MP in a lunch with Westminster political journalists on Thursday afternoon.
She was asked if it was fair that a party investigation into Ms Abbott for her comments last year was taking so long. Ms Abbott was criticised after she said Jews, Irish people and Travellers did not experience racism “all their lives” in the same way as black people, and compared some of the abuse they receive to insults for having red hair. She later apologised.
“I would like to see Diane Abbott back but the Labour Party has to follow its procedures,” said Ms Rayner. She said she “shared frustration” that the investigation was taking so long, but the party leadership must stay out of it.
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