- Diane Abbott was suspended from Labour after repeating contentious comments on racism
- Abbott said racism about skin colour differs from other types of racism on BBC
- She was previously suspended for over a year after similar remarks in 2023
Veteran politician Diane Abbott, the first black woman to become a British MP and a left-wing figurehead, was on Thursday again suspended from the Labour Party after repeating contentious comments about racism.
The move came after Abbott told the BBC that it was "silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism".
It also came the day after Prime Minister Keir Starmer purged his ruling Labour party of four lawmakers, in a bid to reassert his authority following a rebellion over welfare reforms.
"Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing," a Labour party spokesperson said.
Abbott, 71, who ran to be party leader in 2010, is a highly respected figure within Labour ranks.
But she caused an outcry in 2023, when in a letter to the weekly Observer newspaper she wrote that Irish, Jewish people and travellers "undoubtedly experience prejudice" but that it is merely "similar to racism".
She added: "It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism."
Abbott, a close ally of far-left ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn, remained suspended from the party for more than a year.
But she was allowed to run for Labour in the July 2024 elections in her London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and was re-elected.
While she withdrew the remarks and apologised for "any anguish caused", she made a similar argument in her BBC interview aired on Thursday.
"Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because" when you "see a traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know" that they are a traveller or Jewish "unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them".
Corbyn was suspended by Labour in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the findings of a rights watchdog's probe into claims that antisemitism became rampant within the party under his leadership.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
