Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Party after controversial comments on Jews

Diane Abbott has been suspended as a Labour MP this evening after claiming she had no regrets about comments made in 2023 suggesting Jewish people don't suffer racism "all their lives".

In a new BBC interview this morning Ms Abbott, the longest serving female MP in parliament, said she does not regret her remarks made in a letter to the Observer newspaper in April 2023.

Ms Abbott suggested that people of colour experience racism differently to Irish, Jewish and Traveller communities, adding the latter groups are not subject to racism "all their lives". She later apologised and withdrew the remarks, claiming the letter had been an initial draft that was submitted to the newspaper prematurely. However asked today whether she regrets the row that saw her suspended from the Labour Party for a year, she defiantly replied: "No, not at all."

This evening a Labour Party spokesman told the Express: "Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing."

It is understood that Ms Abbott's administrative suspension by the Labour Party, pending investigation, has the automatic effect of suspending the Labour whip in the House of Commons.

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