Diane Abbott is "free" to stand as a Labour candidate in the General
Election, according to Sir Keir Starmer.
The party leader told reporters this afternoon that "the whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate" and went on to praise her a “trailblazer” in British politics.
The veteran left-wing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, the fourth-largest Jewish constituency in the country, is the first black woman elected to Parliament and has represented the area since 1987. Earlier this week it was reported that she had been barred from standing as a candidate, despite having the Labour whip restored to her.
Abbott had been suspended by Labour in April 2023 for writing a letter to the Observer Newspaper claiming that Jews did not face racism, only “prejudice”, of the kind she said was also experienced by Irish people and redheads. She later apologised.
