Who is Diane Abbott? Inside her controversial Labour career

Diane Abbott’s future as a Labour MP hangs in the balance 37 years since she became the first Black woman elected to parliament.

Suspended from the Labour Party 13 months ago for a letter to The Observer described as downplaying antisemitism, Abbott was finally readmitted this week.

But after she claimed she’d been banned from standing for the party in the General Election on July 4, Keir Starmer turned around and said that’s not true.

Last night hundreds of supporters gathered at the steps to Hackney Town Hall to hear Abbott declare she’ll be their next MP ‘by any means necessary’.

She was promptly bundled back to a waiting car as reporters asked if she’ll stand as an independent, but she gave no reply.

The question remains whether she’ll stand again for Labour, or if she’ll follow Jeremy Corbyn to run as an independent and, maybe, win.

Who is Diane Abbott?

Diane Abbott has been described as a ‘trailblazer’ and a ‘role model’ (Picture: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)

Often referred to as ‘Britain’s first Black MP’, it’s more accurate to call her the country’s first Black woman to become an MP.

There had been people of mixed heritage to sit in the House of Commons before her, but it had been nearly a century by the time Abbott was elected in 1987 when she was 33.

Now 70, her politics had been inspired by the women’s and British and American civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s when she was in her teens and 20s.

Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng won seats in the same election, with the latter later becoming the first Black government minister.

Labour’s current shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, described Abbott as ‘an immensely experienced MP and campaigner through many years who has done incredible things’.

Diane Abbott was 33 when she became the first Black woman to be an MP (Picture: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Originally a Cambridge University-educated civil servant-turned journalist, Abbott went on the forge a career in politics campaigning for greater ethnic minority representation.

As an MP, she became known as a campaigner on poverty, racism and international affairs.

She opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq under Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, and often speaks at protests supporting the rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

But she’s also drawn criticism for her stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the civil war in Syria, and for associating with deniers of the Uighur genocide in China and apologists for Serbian leaders responsible for ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

At home, Abbott has opposed an erosion of civil liberties when Blair’s government tried to extend the length of time terror suspected could be detained without charge.

When Labour lost the 2010 election to David Cameron’s Conservatives, Abbott put herself forward in the party’s leadership election

She lost to Ed Miliband, winning just 7.4% to his 34.3% in the first round, but he promoted her to shadow minister for public health.

The MP was one of only 48 on the Labour benches to defy party to abstain by voting against a welfare bill that included a ‘cruel’ two-child cap on child tax credits.

Diane Abbott’s team stuck close to her throughout her brief appearance at a rally by her supporters (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Abbott became a full-blow member of the party’s frontbench, rising through the international development, health and home briefs when Corbyn, a fellow member of the Socialist Campaign Group, won the leadership in 2015.

She’s faced death threats and abuse throughout her time in parliament,.

Nearly half of all abusive X post sent to female MPs leading up to the 2017 General Election were directed at Abbott, according to research by Amnesty International.

The Tories’ biggest ever donor, businessman Frank Hester, even said she ‘should be shot’ and makes people ‘want to hate all Black women’, drawing rare accusations of racism from his own party’s ranks.

But that didn’t stop her from standing up to racism.

She lobbied on behalf of victims of the Windrush scandal – which involved people invited here from the Caribbean to help rebuild after World War II being detained and deported because Home Office employees said they had no right to be here.

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Many only found out about this mis-categorisation when they applied for passports so they could visit family in Jamaica for the first time in decades.

Some died before they ever saw justice or compensation.

Abbott claimed the Conservatives ‘don’t respect that generation, they don’t understand the humiliation this generation feels’.

Her time in the top team came to an end with her resignation as shadow home secretary when Keir Starmer replaced Corbyn as leader in 2020.

What did Diane Abbot say?

Abbott had been a backbench MP again for just three years before she had the whip removed and sat as an independent.

It came after she wrote a letter to The Observer arguing minority groups like Jewish people, and Gypsy, Roman and Traveller people don’t suffer the same racism as Black people.

Referring to them as ‘white people with points of difference’, she compared the prejudice they experience to that faced by people with red hair.

‘This is similar to racism’, she said. ‘But they are not all their lives subject to racism.’

An apparent downplay of racism towards groups that are among the most likely to face racist abuse and discrimination, it was a particularly sensitive issue for Keir Starmer.

He has tried to improve Labour’s public image after most of the UK’s Jewish community stopped voting for it, and after an equality watchdog criticised the party’s handling of antisemitism under Abbott’s ally Corbyn.

Corbyn had been kicked out of the party for saying the scale of antisemitism in the party had been ‘dramatically overstated’.

Abbott apologised soon after her letter was published, claiming an earlier draft had been sent by mistake.

Has she been banned?

Diane Abbott declared her intention to be re-elected as MP, saying she ‘will not be intimidated’ (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Attention turned to Abbott’s future as it became increasingly clear Corbyn would not be allowed to stand for Labour in Islington North.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer made clear in February last year that Corbyn ‘will not stand for Labour at the next general election’.

Corbyn finally confirmed last week what many had suspected since than – he will run against Labour as an independent in the seat he’s represented the seat 1983 – the election before Abbott.

With speculation circling around Abbott’s fate, some expected her to follow suit. But the Labour Party leadership has remained tight-lipped.

Yvette Cooper told BBC Radio 4 in March: ‘As a member of the shadow cabinet, I can’t comment on the independent process… I do want to see that process speeded up.’

Just last week, Starmer referred to it as unresolved.

But it had been over for months, the BBC reported.

The days of Keir Starmer and Diane Abbott sitting together on Labour’s frontbenches are long gone (Picture: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)

Labour’s investigation into her remarks was completed in December last year.

Abbott completed a required online module, believed to be an antisemitism awareness course, in February.

News broke this week that the Labour whip had been restored to her.

It appears there had been a deal to allow her to make a ‘dignified exit’ from Parliament, with Labour restoring the party whip, The Guardian reported.

But that fell apart as reports emerged, from an anonymous Labour source, that she would be stopped from standing for the party in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

Abbott then told the BBC: ‘Although the whip has been restored, I am banned from standing as a Labour candidate.’

Abbott later added on X that she has been ‘dismayed’ by the reports that ‘suggest’ she will be barred by Labour officials.

In a twist that’s left everyone truly baffled, Starmer then emerged to say: ‘No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott.’

The Labour Party is yet to decide if it wants Diane Abbott, but many of her constituents said they will vote for her if she runs as an independent (Picture: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)

Today he told Sky News that Abbott is a ‘trailblazer’ who ‘overcame incredible challenges’ and ‘carved out a path for others to enter politics’.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner told The Guardian: ‘If Diane wanted to stand again, I don’t see any reason why she can’t.’

However, she did indicate a possible expectation that Abbott should or would retire, saying: ‘I want to see her be able to retire with her 37 years of service being respected and being celebrated.’

That means, as of today, we still don’t know whether Abbott will be Labour’s candidate, or an independent, at the General Election on July 4.

But local residents in her Hackney North constituency were keen to see her stay when they gathered at Hackney Town Hall to show their support last night.

Cecilia, 74, told Metro.co.uk: ‘She’s always supported us and engaged. I’ve always voted for her, every year since 1987.’

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Manuela said: ‘When she says she cares, she’s listening – she’s actually listening.’

Christiane Ohsan said: ‘You’re talking about a Black woman who’s faced the highest level of racism, and has been an inspiration.

‘The number of young black people who don’t participate, but she’s a role model for – this is guaranteed to make young Black people say, “What’s the point?”.

‘And that is directly the result of what Keir Starmer has done. He is marginalising Black kids even more.’

What are Diane Abbott’s other controversies?

Diane Abbott arriving at a rally by her supporters in Hackney (Picture: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)

Abbott’s fall from grace has been rather swift.

She’s faced racism, death threats and abuse throughout her time in parliament, before becoming a left-wing bogeyman for the Conservatives and some in her own party.

But for a time she was something of a darling in the press, spending 12 years buddying up with her political opponents on the BBC.

She was one of two regulars on This Week, hosted by the founding chairman of GB News, Andrew Neil, described by Abbott as ‘the left’s least favourite television presenter’.

Beside her, often squeezed uncomfortably close on a tiny couch, was Michael Portillo, once tipped as future Tory leader before unexpectedly losing his seat and rebranding as a reverse Francis Bourgeois presenting train documentaries.

Diane Abbott’s most iconic moment (Picture: Jo St Mart/X)

Their compelling camaraderie and commitment to politics wasn’t enough to dispel lingering concerns about an increasingly gaffe-prone Abbott in the later years of her career.

It’s not just been a ‘cheeky’ tinny, when Abbott was pictured sipping an M&S mojito on an Overground train in 2019, sparking outrage at her breach of Transport for London laws banning alcohol consumption.

Despite the controversy, it was perhaps one of her most endearing moments, remind the public that politicians are like the rest of us who are partial to some ‘tinnies on the Tube’.

What great meme fodder it was for X user Louis Staples, who matched Abbott’s outfits with every M&S cocktail on offer.

But much of her memeification has been far less kind.

‘Car crash’ LBC interview about police officers

One of her most widely shared clips is of her fudging the numbers on the cost of 10,000 new police officers to help tackle rising crime during an interview on LBC in 2017.

While serving as shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, Abbott initially claimed it would cost £300,000 over four years, which would be £30 per officer.

Presenter Nick Ferrari’s shock at the number prompted her to revise the number to £80,000,000, funded by reversing a cut in capital gains tax.

But even that would mean each officer only received £8,000 over four years.

The confusion only escalated as Abbott flitted between different recruitment figures and costs, seemingly forgetting which number she’d just said.

Abbott pulled out of a subsequent BBC interview, later revealing a diabetes diagnosis she blamed for her performance.

She said: ‘During the election campaign, everything went crazy – and the diabetes was out of control, the blood sugar was out of control.’

Private school hypocrisy

Abbott once slammed party colleagues Tony Blair and Harriet Harman for sending their children to selective state schools.

Then it emerged she had sent her own son to the private £10,000 a year City of London School when he was 12.

It prompted Harman to claim in 2003: ‘She made the party look as if we do one thing and say another.’

Abbott defended the what she dubbed the ‘indefensible’, saying she threw away her reputation for political consistency for ‘the best possible cause’.

She said: ‘I was taught that you sacrifice everything for your child. I could have joined the church and all the stuff people do, but I wasn’t prepared to.

‘That school was the making of him.’

Chairman Mao did ‘more good than harm’

Back in a 2008 broadcast of This Week, Abbott claimed the Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong did ‘more good than harm, you can’t say that about the Nazis’.

Her response to Portillo, who asked why it’s okay to wear a Mao t-shirt but not a Hitler one, proved controversial even during the broadcast.

Portillo retorted: ‘What was the good that he did that made up for the 60,000,000 people he murdered?’

Defending the leader of China’s cultural revolution and ‘Great Leap Forward’, Abbott replied: ‘He led his country from feudalism, he helped defeat the Japanese [in WWII], and he left his country on the verge of the great economic success they’re having now.’

Support for the IRA

Left-wing Labour MPs have a history of voicing support for Irish unification, which the IRA was fighting for (Picture: Phil Lewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The IRA proved a particular thorn in the side for Labour during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and not because the group was targeting political leaders like days gone by.

Instead it was because of the top team’s past support for the organisation, banned as a terrorist group in the UK and Ireland.

Corbyn, who was pictured with various IRA members down the years, claimed he had never met the IRA.

Abbott had described a British defeat in Northern Ireland, where it was battling the IRA and other Irish republican groups, as ‘a great liberation’.

She said: ‘Every defeat of the British state is a victory for all of us. A defeat in Northern Ireland would be a defeat indeed.’

Abbott had ‘moved on’ by the time she became shadow home secretary, saying: ‘I had a rather splendid Afro at the time.

‘I don’t have the same hair style, I don’t have the same views – it is 34 years on.’

Signing, then un-signing, a statement on Ukraine

Diane Abbott has always been vocal on foreign affairs, and that’s been the source of much criticism (Picture: Flying Colours/Getty Images)

Abbott was one of 11 Labour MPs who endorsed a Stop the War statement blaming NATO expansion for Russia’s war in Ukraine in February 2024.

It said: ‘The crisis should be settled on a basis which recognises the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and addresses Russia’s security concerns.’

The statement came less than a week before the full-scale invasion when Putin’s tanks rolled over the border and his planes dropped bombs on Ukrainian cities.

She and her colleagues removed their signatures later that day after Labour warned them they may lose the party whip.

Charging £1,750 to speak to students

Abbott, who opposes tuition fees, faced calls to return the £1,750 she was paid for a 50-minute speech at a student-run event at the University of Birmingham in 2011.

It’s not unusual for outside speakers to be paid for their appearances at universities, and Birmingham’s head of politics said normal accounting procedures had been followed.

But Alex Blackburn, a graduate of the university, called the fee ‘a gross insult to all British students’ when they payment became public in 2013.

They said: ‘This could have paid for half a year’s tuition at the time.’

Comments on race

The media has dubbed Diane Abbott the ‘race row MP’ (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Often, Abbott’s most controversial comments are on race and racism.

In 1996, she wrote a column for the Hackney Gazette questioning why ‘blonde, blue-eyed girls from Finland’ would be hired over Caribbean nurses ‘who know the language and understand British culture and institutions’.

She asked: ‘Are Finnish girls, who may never have met a black person before, let alone touched one, best suited to nurse in multicultural Hackney?’

That drew criticism from fellow anti-racist campaigner Marc Wadsworth who pointed to the Miss Finland of the time, Lola Odusoga, saying: ‘She’s a Black Finn like me.’

In 2012, Abbott sparked fury yet again with her claim in a post on X that ‘White people love playing ‘divide & rule’.

She said it in response to criticism of journalists using the term ‘black community leaders’ in coverage of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, the BBC reported.

Diane Abbott has campaigned against racism throughout her life (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Abbott added: ‘Ethnic communities that show more public solidarity & unity than black people do much better.’

Her comments were reported to the Met Police.

Then-Labour Leader Ed Miliband reportedly told Abbott the comments were ‘unacceptable’, and she subsequently apologised.

She said: ‘I understand people have interpreted my comments as making generalisations about white people. I do not believe in doing that.’

Abbott caused further controversy when she said: ‘Dubious of black people claiming they’ve never experienced racism. Ever tried hailing a taxi I always wonder?’

Research from the US suggests people do believe they face discrimination based on race when trying to hail a taxi, according to The Washington Post.

Diane Abbott is the longest serving Black MP in British history (Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

But taxi drivers hit back at Abbott’s claim.

Steve McNamara, a spokesman for the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, branded it ‘a typically silly comment by Diane Abbott’.

He said: ‘The modern generation of taxi drivers is as diverse as London itself.’

While she might not always hit the right note, her constituents like Manuela believe Abbott’s years of political service have made her a ‘role model’.

Manuela said: ‘Generations and generation have seen this woman fighting a battle for them.

‘I’m here today for me, for my daughter, and for my grandchildren, because if something doesn’t change, then our children, as a black woman, as a black person, we won’t stand a chance.’

Does Diane Abbott have a husband or children?

Crowds came down to Hackney Town Hall to chant ‘We stand with Diane’ on May 29 (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Part of Abbott’s appeal to her constituents is that she’s faced and understands many of the struggles they have.

She might have attended Cambridge University like much of the political elite, but she’s also the child of Jamaican emigrants – the Windrush generation – who left school at 14.

Abbott was a single mother at a time when people worked longer hours and didn’t get maternity leave.

She had married David Ayensu-Thompson, a Ghanaian architect, in 1991, but they divorced in 1993, a year after their son James was born.

Abbott picked her pairing partner, Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken, as his godfather.

James defended his mother when she faced criticism for sending him to private school.

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Speaking to LBC in 2003, he said: ‘She’s not a hypocrite, she just put what I wanted first.

‘My mum didn’t force me to go to private school, I took the test for the schools I wanted to go to, and I chose the school I wanted to go to.

‘If I wanted to go to a state school then my mum would have let me go to a state school.

‘It’s a good school. The facilities, the resources and the teachers seem better than the state school.

‘My mum said you can go to what school you want, she didn’t say you have to go to a private school, or you have to go to a state school.’

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Despite meteoric rise through the ranks of the Foreign Office since he joined the fast-track scheme in 2014, James’ pre-existing drug problems eventually caught up with him.

The diplomat chased his mother around her home with scissors, claiming he had a gun in his pocket, while on a cocktail of drugs, a court heard.

He then attacked nine police officers, doctors, nurses and security guards at various hospitals, MailOnline reported.

In 2020, James was handed an indefinite hospital order, and he was banned from entering the Foreign Office after attacking police officers there and throwing a stone at a member of the public when he was sacked the summer before.

Judge Aaronberg QC told him: ‘You were a model citizen, you had a good education, a good degree and good employment. You need to resist the temptation of taking illicit drugs in the future.’

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