Racist Keir Starmer suspends Diane Abbott in a row of his own making

The Labour Party has suspended Diane Abbott for the second time over a race row of their own making. This suspension is the latest saga in the continued misogynoir that Abbott has faced throughout her career. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s James Naughtie she was asked about her remarks in a 2023 letter which resulted in her first suspension.

In that letter, Abbott had explained that the prejudice experienced by “Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers” was substantially different from the experiences of people of colour. Now, when asked if she stood by her comments, Abbott said she did. Once again, for explaining her understanding of racism – led by her own experiences and expertise – Abbott has been suspended. In a statement she said:

My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.

Of course, Keir Starmer is no such fair-minded person. After his infamous “island of strangers” speech which drew on decades of racist attitudes towards British identity, his obsession with characterising refugees as illegal, and his track record of vilification of women of colour, he is evidently a racist.

On top of that, the latest statistics on approval ratings point to a poor showing for Starmer:

🚨 Net approval with 16/17 year olds 👇

🟣 Corbyn +16
🟠 Davey +3
🟢 Denyer +3
🔴 Starmer +1
🔵 Badenoch -2
➡️ Farage -6

Via @StrategyMerlin, 4-6 July pic.twitter.com/EJdfqohgdQ

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) July 17, 2025

For all of Starmer’s desperate attempts to appeal to more centrist and right-wing voters, it’s not fucking working. That’s even after betraying disabled people via welfare cuts, removing the whip from dissenting MPs, and targeting Abbott time after time.

Abbott’s interview

Naturally, mainstream media is incapable of the racial literacy necessary to report effectively, or even accurately, on this. But, what Diane Abbott actually said is not particularly complicated. However, is is clearly coming from a lifetime’s worth of experiencing racism. The BBC’s Naughtie mentions that Abbott’s constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington is multi-racial. Abbott explains:

Oh yes. And that’s what makes it a great place to represent. You’ve got a big Black community. I mean, historically you had a big Jewish community. It was one of the biggest Jewish communities in London and it remains of the biggest Jewish communities in the country.

Naughtie then asks if she regrets her comments that triggered her first suspension. Abbott responds:

No, not at all. Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street. You don’t know. You don’t know unless you stop to speak to them or you’re in a meeting with them. But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. There are different types of racism.

There’s nothing problematic about this opinion. It is fact that Black people can immediately be visibly identified as Black in a way that Jewish people cannot. And, given Abbott has been suspended for her comments in this same interview, how exactly are the Labour party identifying whether someone is Jewish based on sight alone?

Abbott is indisputably correct that when people are visibly identifiable as an ethnic minority. Jewish people can be of any racial ethnicity. And, here Abbott is communicating an extremely important point about her own experiences of anti-Blackness, racism, and misogynoir. There is no way for her to not be seen as a Black woman. That impacts how she exists in the world and inescapably changes her experiences of racism and prejudice.

To be suspended for these remarks is an absolute fucking travesty. Starmer and this Labour party have been gunning to get rid of Abbott at any opportunity. That they chose this one tells us that they’re racist opportunists who do not genuinely care about anti-Semitism unless they’re weaponising it.

BBC are part of the problem

Speaking of, the BBC are not without blame in this debacle. During the interview, Naughtie’s next comment is to say:

But the effect is the same if you are, going to a synagogue on a Saturday morning and you have to have guards outside because some people might come along and want to insult you or even throw things at you. That’s pretty much the same as the kind of thing you describe in your book as happening to you as a black person. The fact that one is a person of colour and one isn’t is neither here nor there. If you suffered it, it’s still damaging.

The fact that Naughtie uses an example where a Jewish person is entering a Jewish place of worship is Abbott’s point entirely. Jewish people who are white or white-passing cannot be identified as Jewish based on sight alone. Just as Diane Abbott explained. However, in his example Naughtie describes an instance of racism wherein Jewish people are able to be seen as such because they’re in a synagogue. What is the point of this hand wringing over Abbott’s comments? As she responded:

It is here because you can spot that person of colour from hundreds of yards away. That is what is different.

Naughtie pushes Abbott on whether she regrets her remarks and she responds:

I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour, is the same as other types of racism. I just…I don’t know why people would say that.

Then, in a move reminiscent of rabid newsfolk asking if Palestinians condemn Hamas, Naughtie asks:

But you would, I assume, condemn anti-Semitic behaviour in the same way that you would condemn racist behaviour against someone simply because of the colour of their skin?

At this stage, Naughtie’s question is a demeaning and insulting bad faith reading of Abbott’s remarks. Regardless, Abbott responds with the grace that she has shown throughout her career:

Well, of course, and I do get a bit weary of people trying to pin the anti-Semitic label on me because I’ve spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds, and in particular, fighting anti-Semitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency.

That is the entirety of the interview for which she was suspended. She did not say anything racist. In fact, having been an MP of her constituency for almost 40 years, Abbott has more experience and expertise at combating anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism than the gutter rats trying to drag her name through the mud.

Outrage over Diane Abbott’s suspension

Such a sentiment was shared across social media. Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti was forceful in her criticism of Starmer’s response:

"People who are writing island of strangers speeches should be a bit slow to sit in judgement on Diane Abbott who has been fighting racism all her life," Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti tells #PoliticsLivehttps://t.co/Q0FLpemLCD pic.twitter.com/IcAziGKZkt

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) July 17, 2025

Unionist Howard Beckett called Starmer out for his racism:

Shami Chakrabarti nails it in support of Diane Abbott:

‘Those who preach “Islands of Strangers” have no right to sit in judgement of Diane Abbott’

‘Diane- a life long campaigner against racism’

Starmer has moved Labour to a racist endeavour

Starmer is beyond appalling. pic.twitter.com/4MAgpdtgh3

— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) July 17, 2025

MP Apsana Begum expressed her support for Abbott:

Diane has always stood up for me. I stand in solidarity with her against the attacks she continues to face in public life. https://t.co/NtrwEWsqro

— Apsana Begum MP (@ApsanaBegumMP) July 17, 2025

Ian Lavery decried the further erosion of traditionally Labour values:

Suspending Labour MPs for standing up for real Labour values is a terrible look.

— Ian Lavery (@IanLaveryMP) July 16, 2025

MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy had to urge people to listen to what Abbott had actually said, instead of the breathless headlines:

Solidarity with @HackneyAbbott.

Before condemning her based on headlines, I would listen to her clip and note she discussed the different forms that racism takes and condemned all forms of racism. https://t.co/3J5mPRdxo8

— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) July 17, 2025

One popular news account entirely misrepresented Abbott’s remarks:

This is not what she said @PolitlcsUK https://t.co/z63Wk4bHNV

— Sharmen Rahman (@sharmen_r) July 18, 2025

And, even Channel 4 spread misinformation:

Diane Abbott should sue over this, because that's not what she said and is a gross mischaracterisation. https://t.co/AfqYMuEpOd

— Joe Guinan (@joecguinan) July 17, 2025

This, precisely, is the problem. Abbott’s comments, on either instance, were not anti-Semitic but have been weaponised as such by a Labour party and media who are all too ready to tear down a Black woman.

One social media user summed up the reason for the suspension:

Keir Starmer has been itching to kick Diane Abbott from the Labour Party for years. No one is surprised that she's being suspended.

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) July 17, 2025

And, journalist Craig Murray pointed out the absurdity of Abbott’s rather simple comments being wilfully misconstrued:

Diane Abbott has been suspended by Starmer for saying racism affects various ethnic groups in differing ways.
I should have thought that extremely obvious.

— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) July 17, 2025

The doublethink was off the charts:

Feel like I'm going insane because she's correct here. She's not saying other forms of racism aren't awful, but she is stating the obvious which is that if you are clearly a person of colour, as in on sight, the racism comes in a different form. https://t.co/SHRjrpKa95

— 🇵🇸 Claudia Boleyn MA🌹Lesbian🌹she/her (@ClaudiaBoleyn) July 17, 2025

Disgraceful

Diane Abbott’s remarks are a prescient and intersectional analysis of how racism manifests. The fact she is asked, after an almost 40 year career as an elected MP for a constituency with a large Jewish population, whether she cares about anti-Semitism is disgraceful. Starmer’s Labour are perpetuating racism, anti-Blackness, and misogynoir in suspending Abbott. Her comments were plain speaking, in touch with modern racism, and factually correct.

The hysterical response to Abbott’s remarks are symptomatic of a society operating on a hair-trigger basis to performative rejections of anti-Semitism. People like Abbott who are actually on the frontlines rejecting all forms of racism are evidently a threat to Starmer’s vision of the country.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/BBC News