UK’s Labour suspends Diane Abbott after she claims that Jews face discrimination rather than racism

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 24 April, 2023

HIGH-PROFILE MP Diane Abbott has been suspended by the major opposition Labour Party because of a letter she sent in which she claimed that prejudice experienced by Jewish people was like – but not the same as – racism.

The move came against the backdrop of the party not adopting former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North after he was accused of not taking antisemitism seriously enough.

The independent equalities watchdog determined in 2020 that Labour handled allegations of recurrent antisemitism with major deficiencies.

The 69-year-old Abbott was addressing a writer’s assertions that Travellers, Jews, and Irish people experienced prejudice. She claimed that although there were distinctions, their experiences with racism were comparable but qualified this.

“They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism, and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable,” she wrote.

“It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice,” she said in the letter. “But they are not all their lives subject to racism.”

Abbott, an MP since 1987, is a close supporter of Corbyn for whom she served as the party’s spokeswoman for home affairs. Abbott was the first Black woman elected to the Parliament in 1987.
In her letter to the Observer newspaper, Abbott said that “in pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”

She later apologised “unreservedly” and withdrew her remarks.

“The errors arose in an initial draft being sent,” she said in a message posted on Twitter. “But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused.”

Her suspension was announced by a Labour Party official and was temporary.

The Labour Party has made enough reforms over the previous two years to combat antisemitism, according to a statement released earlier this year by Britain’s equalities commission and leader Keir Starmer has vowed to crackdown on any antisemitism.