UK Labour suspends Diane Abbott MP over racism letter
- Abbott, the first black woman to become a UK MP, said in newspaper letter that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all ‘experience prejudice’
- But she said they ‘are not all their lives subject to racism … at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships’
The UK’s main opposition Labour Party suspended prominent member Diane Abbott as an MP on Sunday, pending an investigation into comments she made that Jewish people were not subject to racism “all their lives”.
Abbott, the first black woman to become an MP in the UK, said in a letter to the Observer newspaper that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all “experience prejudice” similar to that suffered by “white people with points of difference, such as redheads. But they are not all their lives subject to racism”.
“At the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships,” she added.
Labour immediately announced that Abbott, who was shadow interior minister under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, had been suspended from its parliamentary party.
“The Labour Party completely condemns these comments, which are deeply offensive and wrong,” said a spokesman.
“The chief whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott pending an investigation.”