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September 13, 2024 - 11:30am
Labour politician Diane Abbott has claimed that her party is guilty of “institutional racism”. Speaking at the Southbank Centre in London yesterday evening, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP said that “there is no doubt that there’s institutional racism in the Labour Party,” adding that “Labour takes black members and supporters for granted.”
Abbott was in conversation with the writer Afua Hirsch about her new memoir A Woman Like Me, and also criticised Keir Starmer’s management of his party. According to Abbott, the Labour leader “pushed out the Left starting with Jeremy Corbyn and ending, he hoped, with me”. She was suspended by Labour in April last year, after she wrote a letter to the Observer which claimed that Jewish and Irish people “experience prejudice” but not racism, and compared their treatment to that of people with red hair. Having had the whip reinstated, Abbott suggested in May that Starmer had blocked her from standing for Labour in the summer’s general election.
The former shadow home secretary accused Starmer of being “harsher than Tony Blair” in his treatment of the Labour Left, stating that “the Left of the party is on the downturn at the minute.” She also warned that “it’s corrosive if you’re not willing to listen to your members, your MPs and the public”, asserting that “the idea that you have pliant voters” is “very wrong”.
One example Abbott provided of this disconnect between the Labour leadership and members was on Gaza, where Starmer initially refused calls for a ceasefire in the conflict and even dismissed eight members of the then-Shadow Cabinet for going against the party line. The Prime Minister has since adapted his position to demand an immediate ceasefire, though he is still viewed by the Labour Left as being insufficiently tough on Israel. “We have an all-party consensus on Gaza,” Abbott said last night. “And I think that’s wrong.”
Asked whether there were ethnic-minority politicians in the UK who were, in Hirsch’s words, “anti-black”, Abbott responded that “Kemi [Badenoch] has really advanced her career by saying those sorts of things.” When, earlier this year, the Conservative Party’s biggest donor Frank Hester was revealed to have said that looking at Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”, Badenoch branded the comments “racist”. The Shadow Housing Secretary later dismissed the row as “pure media bubble speculation”.
At the Southbank yesterday evening, Abbott also weighed in on foreign affairs, arguing that if elected, Donald Trump “would be a threat to all of us, not just the US”. She cited “Germany, France and Italy, where you literally have fascists in power”, despite Emmanuel Macron remaining President of France and Germany being governed by the centre-left “traffic light coalition” led by Olaf Scholz. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has attempted to distance herself from her Brothers of Italy party’s fascist past.
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SubscribeI think she may be on to something here. Labour’s attitude to the native people of the UK – and most specifically the English – certainly leaves questions to be answered.
But, more seriously, it does seem that Diane Abbott’s judgement has abandoned her several years ago. She used to occasionally say interesting and thought-provoking things and certainly at least had some “nuisance value”. It’s always good to have some heretics and awkward squad people around. But claiming that the governments of Germany, France and Italy are actually fascist !!! That’s a good 30% of the sainted EU you’re talking about Diane !
You do wonder whether, like Joe Biden, she needs to be retired for her own good.
Thank you for your much more measured and detailed comments than most on here!
Oh, shut the f*ck up. The racial hustle gig is overflowing and everyone is sick to death of drowning in it. Good grief, we were warned that grievance was a money-maker after the American Civil War.
Those of us who grew up with con men Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (the latter so ably parodied by Tom Wolfe in The Bonfire of the Vanities), can spot them immediately and roll our eyes out of their sockets. Why does anyone bother with them any more?
Because they go forth unchallenged. Seriously, what media outlet ever called bullshit on Sharpton?
I remember Trump calling Al Sharp a conman way back in 2015, thats when I knew he was going to win
The reference to the American Civil War is totally bizarre. So you’re now objecting them to civil rights for black.people are you?
My guess is you aren’t well north of 150 years of age and so who’s the ‘we’ in the Civil War comment?
Your racial reflex well to the fore. Don’t think it’s not obvious even in the echo-chamber of Unherd.
Tedious, deliberately obtuse, drivel.
I disagree with Diane Abbott on many if not most issues. I don’t think she probably is the most profound political thinker of all time. I used to actually like her on Andrew Neil’s political programme where she debated and sparred with Michael Portillo. Actually I think her limitations are a tremendous shame, because it was an achievement for a black woman to become an MP, it’s a good thing that MPs are broadly representative of the population in the multicultural society we have, whether or not we happen to agree with the levels of immigration that have created it. This wasn’t previously the case for many decades.
I believe Abbott is sincere but misguided in many of her opinions rather than being a grievance mongerer. The world is complex: just as rape certainly exists as well as some people crying wolf and using it as a weapon, discrimination and racism do exist, as well as some people taking advantage of this to achieve a bully pulpit and power. But to assume that everybody is in this latter category is simplistic. Perhaps as well, human beings in general are not very aware of their motivations
In any case, I find is depressing to read the litany of character assassination and name calling in most of the comments on here, without a single shred of analysis or understanding of where Abbott comes from, or indeed any refutation of anything specific she’s actually said. I would expect better commentators on UnHerd. Abbott does receive more than her fair share of abuse, and I think it’s fair to say that in any language some of it is indeed racist. So it is pretty depressing to see the low level name calling on this site. Combat the ideas, not the person.
Apart from anything else, it is all too easy to characterise such ad-feminam negative comments as backing up Abbot’s critique, instead of being much more forensically critical, about for example her borderline anti-Semitic comments, or indeed her attacks on other black politicians who don’t happen to agree with her left-wing opinions.
Well said AF. Thank you
Some nice points there. But it’s quite simple, she has diminished the gravity given to real racial discrimination by playing these silly rhetorical games with language about ‘institutional racism’ and anti-semitism, & weaponising this rhetoric for partisan ends.
Just like everyone on the woke left, she is the opposite of what she claims in that sense.
Abbot is obsessed with anti-Black racism. Perhaps she is unable to detect the apparent anti-White racism she conveys. Sir Two-Tier Keir was too scared of her to boot her out of the Labour Party. She will continue to be a thorn in his side – good!
[PS – Am I alone in thinking that Sir K lacks charisma?]
I think you’d be rather isolated if you did think Sir Keir had charisma.
No not alone, but Bojo had charisma and look what a shambles he made. So perhaps we can do without that for a while now. Some dour competency and a little less bluster might do us.
Competency? Dear God!
Bojo was a saint compared with Starmer…
If Labour have annoyed the Abbotopotamus then there must be something going for it. Pity they didn’t expel her.
Two Tier Stalin would have loved to have expelled her, but I am so glad he was unable to as I have no doubt she will provide much more entertainment like this over what is going to be a very grim 5 years of totalitarian rule.
Basically she didn’t get (or perhaps accept) the message. Labour isn’t about race war anymore, it’s gone back to class war. It’s about taxing the rich upper class and gaoling the stroppy working class while the professional middle class cruises on.
Is Ms. Abbott’s Louise Brooks hairdo cultural appropriation?
Copying Rachel Reeves?
Fake hair, fake lashes, fake nails – all provided by China. Cultural? It’s only appropriation when white people do it.
The prejudice working at a sub-conscious level there FM you probably don’t even know you have. But let me tell you – being triggered to comment on the appearance of someone who is black or female a dead giveaway.
I gave you a down vote. You know why, as you know me so well.
Is it because he is an idiot?
I thought more Tulsa Doom from Conan. The late, great James Earl Jones. looks like him too.
Ms Abbott had a front row seat from which to view Labour Party racism, having been at the heart of a Corbyn project that generated such a damning EHRC report.
She might consider crossing the floor to the Tories. In the past ten years they’ve had a hindu PM, a black Chancellor, women of colour as Home Secretary, and maybe soon a black woman leader. Whatever else, she surely can’t accuse the Conservatives of ‘institutional racism’ (if you believe in that).
she surely can’t accuse the Conservatives of ‘institutional racism’
Is the challenge to Abbott or a wager you’d like to make? Never underestimate the ability of buffoons to outdo themselves if given the chance.
And taking £10m from a donor who said she and her sort should be shot all acceptable to you?
Yes! You blatherskite.
Of course she thinks labour is institutionaly racist – her whole career has been built on crying ‘racism’ (or sexism) at every possible opportunity.
Sorry, but Abbott is so predictable and tedious l skipped the article and went straight to comments
Abbott is a case study in the decline of political talent in the UK.
Also an example of the dangers and weak thinking inherent in any form of positive descrimination – in any field.
I agree Phil Day. I cannot understand how the English tolerate such intellectual midgets as Abbott.
“Tolerate”! A rather hilarious revealing comment coming on a supposedly free speech site!. I don’t know whether you are racist in your attitudes but you’re certainly snobbish! I disagree with Diane Abbott on many, many things but she was actually elected by her constituents. By the way people with high intellect – Vladimir Lenin comes to mind – have often wreaked havoc in human history.
It would be nice if people stuck to actual arguments rather than character assassination and name calling.
Take your accusation of racism and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. Nobody here referenced the melanin content of her skin except for you. No one cares about it. What bothers people about Diane Abbot is her obvious intellectual ineptitude and ideological capture by far left drivel as demonstrated by her resort to accusations of racism when she wasn’t getting what she wanted. I despise this Labour government but weirdly it appears there is still at least a nod to the idea of competence of identity death rattling in there somewhere.
It is not character assassination to describe Dianne Abbott as stupid. She is, rather obviously, really quite stupid. The word “tolerate”, I agree, is probably not the best way to describe the problems associated with electing someone incapable of meeting the requirements of the job of an MP, but the concern is nevertheless legitimate.
As far as your example of Lenin goes, you might be right that a clever person might also be a psychopath, but there’s still a lower chance of that being a problem than electing someone who is quite definitely too stupid to do the job at all.
You missed nothing
Labour IS very racist indeed.
Against white people.
According to Abbott, the Labour leader “pushed out the Left starting with Jeremy Corbyn and ending, he hoped, with me”. She was suspended by Labour in April last year, after she wrote a letter to the Observer which claimed that Jewish and Irish people “experience prejudice” but not racism, and compared their treatment to that of people with red hair.
“We have an all-party consensus on Gaza,” Abbott said last night. “And I think that’s wrong.”
Regardless of whether you agree with her, an all party consensus is wrong.
Balance in a democracy is very important.
Being able to discuss issues like racism freely, and without getting suspended is very important, regardless of whether your opinion is left or right wing.
If you believe in freedom of speech and freedom of expression you should be concerned about MPs being pushed out for holding views that are not in line with the general consensus.
Being able to challenge the consensus is very important, I am glad Corbyn and Abbott are still in government and able to do that.
By challenging the consensus Abbott is actually being anything but tedious and boring.
When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail.
Hammers are useful. Abbott less so.
At 7.9 g/cm3, a steel hammer is pretty dense. Some politicians even more so.
One can only be taken for granted by allowing it to happen. But, of course, rather than accept some responsibility, Ms. Abbott plays the worn out race card. It’s beyond tedious.
Abbott sounds like a leftist caricature straight out of central casting – spewing all the predictable insults at all the predictable targets. She, like the others, is undaunted by reality and well aware that no one will ever challenge her idiocy, least of all the state media. Abbott speaks for her own aggrandizement, not out of any legitimate concern.
She HAS actually been challenged and indeed sanctioned over her comments.
Slaped on the wrist really.
We all know how racist the Labour Party is and has been for years. Just not how Abbott means #antisemitism.
Abbott was sidelined because she was too left. Maybe also because she was too ignorant – which is a bit rich coming from an ideology that believes meritocracy is right wing and DEI would solve all the world’s problems. It had nothing to do with the colour of her skin. If Labour were truly racist why would it encourage Islam to take over Britain?
Why would they encourage Islam to take over? Because they hate whites.
Please don’t say silly things. This is yet another failing right-wing fashionable trope, which has no chance of persuading the wider electorate. Please point to a single shred of evidence that Labour “intend Islam to take over Britain”.
Labour are certainly (if not universally) very sympathetic to people coming to our shores from many other very different cultures and societies in the world, but that is not the same point. I’m not sure for example that the Muslim population generally support LGBT Rights or sexual libertarianism, which the modern Labour Party certainly does. Muslims will also always be a minority in this society, albeit a larger one than today.
On Unherd that sort of comment will get you a few cheers. More broadly folks will just think you bit of a berk.
Pot, meet kettle…
Labour thought they were importing people who would be most likely to keep them in Office. I’m still not sure that the penny has dropped.
I’m pretty sure that the only party that Diane Abbott would not consider institutionally racist is a party entirely and exclusively made up of…Diane Abbott.
She should just leave the party and sit in Hackney muttering to herself, the net benefit to society would be greater than the current situation.
‘Racism’ is a word which has lost its meaning. Various ‘clever’ people who have put their own meaning on the word have debased the meaning of the original concept. Racism, like Fascism, Sexism and all such words have come to mean, ‘Those who don’t agree with me.’
I suspect that Diane Abbott’s value has reduced to merely providing content for journalists trying to fill blank space, but of little other significance.
I note she has a new book to sell. Signed copies limited to one per customer (gasp).
I think she is right. Labour are institutionally, deeply racist.
Just in the opposite direction to the one she claims.
You draw attention to a key point – the crackers Right struggle to link the marginalisation of likes of Diane in the Lab party with the general meme it’s run by loony Lefts. But consistency and logicality of thought never the crackers Right strong suit.
Nice bit of racism there JW, well done.
To my knowledge nobody has ever asserted that either the Labour Party or woke ideology in general, was consistent or logical. Queers for Palestine is an obvious example. It is entirely consistent with the inconsistency of its ideology that the Labour Party can be run by the loony left and at the same time marginalise a loony leftist.
She’s the gift that keeps on giving, this one. One thing Starmer got right was to take off the Labour front bench before the election. She turns everything she’s associated with into a joke.
Diane Abbott is congenitally racist.
Diane Abbott is – to some extent – an atypical outlier in the fools gallery of Labour Party politics. But in another sense she is just an extreme case of the self-flattering vanity that underlies all its social justice warrior posturing. What then of the – hopefully not terminally moribund – alternative British Conservative perspective? Certainly some of it is mere grumpiness. But at its best it is a wry observation – based on close observation of friends and enemies, family and colleagues, literature and ‘current affairs’ – that there are, and always will be, honesty and self delusion, real and faux expressions of generosity of spirit, bullies dressed up as champions of liberty…wise men and fools in other words. Conservative may also have taken note from their reading of history that progress – real improvements in the quality of life of the average man or woman – mostly spring from man’s technological ingenuity rather than his ideological mind games. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/are-we-making-progress
Abbott warrants an article in Unherd? Is it so bad already that Jeremy Corbyn and her are in Opposition to Starmer? That such gets them a sympathetic ear? Enemies of my enemy etc?
Seems an odd claim that the lead faction in the so called march through the institutions, Labour, are racist. Seems strange in an alleged 75% racist country that 25% are in power.
She warrants an Article to give the haters something this weekend to rage against. Another weekend it’s Blair, then the Guardian. You can set your watch by it. Subscribers largely lap it up.
If you want to get an idea of what Diane Abbott may be like, wait till you meet her son.
The real issue here is that Abbott is constitutionally racist and simply cannot see it.
It’s clear that Abbott was the true genius behind Corbynism all along
You would think that a woman who has suffered genuine racist abuse throughout her career might feel some more sympathy for other victims of racism, instead of downplaying what they’ve been through and claiming their skin colour has somehow shielded them. I’ve seen the signs racist landlords used to put up, and they were very explicit about treating Afro Caribbean and Irish people exactly the same.
This nonsense has pervaded the elites so thoroughly that I reckon the biggest problem is that of institutional stupidity.
Once again the Abbottross brings the house down……on her neatly coiffured syrup!! Hey, Lady L’Oreal , try this one in your stand-up routine ; how many beans make five? 10,000? 300,000? Because you’re worth it!
Starmer will learn, if he hasn’t already, that you can never bend the knee low enough. Abbott has one card to play, and she plays it, ad nauseam.
No great fan of Diane, her abilities or her politics. But I have immense respect for her because she is the most abused, racially and sexually, of just about all public figures. And she still stands up for what she believes and has not quivered and withdrawn.
The vast majority of the ‘Racial Reflex Ragers’ here on Unherd wouldn’t last 5mins dealing we what she has had to put up with.
She gets that abuse because she’s nothing else but a race grifter, a rabid antisemite and thick as a brick. Of course, representative of her electorate.
Enough of this “be kind” bs