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Diane Abbott has confirmed she will run as the Labour candidate in her London constituency, drawing a line under a days-long row over the fate of one of the most prominent left-wingers in British politics.
“I intend to run and to win as Labour’s candidate”, the veteran MP said on X on Sunday after speculation that she might choose to retire even after Sir Keir Starmer said she could be a candidate for Labour.
On Sunday evening, Abbott called Starmer a liar on X — after he claimed he had huge respect for her — before rapidly deleting the tweet.
Abbott, Britain’s first female Black MP, has been at the centre of a furore that overshadowed Labour’s first full week of campaigning for the UK general election set for July 4.
The prominent socialist, who has been an MP for 37 years, said on Wednesday she had been “banned” from standing as a Labour candidate, prompting criticism of Starmer’s leadership by MPs across the party.
She had been suspended as a Labour MP, sitting instead as an independent, since last year after suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people did not experience racism like her but rather “prejudice”.
Abbott apologised for the comments at the time and had the Labour whip restored this week.
Prominent Labour figures who publicly questioned the effort to nonetheless block Abbott from running again for the party included deputy leader Angela Rayner, London mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
By Friday Starmer had been forced into a U-turn as he announced that Abbott would be “free” to fight for re-election as a Labour candidate in her safe seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Abbott’s candidacy needs to be approved by Labour’s ruling national executive committee at a meeting on Tuesday, but that is expected to be a rubber-stamping exercise given Starmer’s control of the 41-member group.
Some MPs and union leaders saw the attempt to oust Abbott as over-reach by Starmer and his allies as they seek to neutralise the left of the party and place Labour firmly in the centre ground.
The row over Abbott came alongside a fresh outbreak of factional warfare within Labour in recent days when the party withdrew its support from two leftwing candidates: economist Faiza Shaheen and sitting MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
Shaheen was blocked from standing for Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green after liking a social media post that referred to a “hysterical” Israel lobby that harassed critics of the country, for which she apologised.
She has engaged lawyers to challenge the party’s decision and accused it of pursuing a “factional agenda” against left-wingers.
Russell-Moyle was suspended over a complaint about his past behaviour that he described as “vexatious”, rendering him ineligible to stand as a Labour candidate in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven.
At the same time the party announced a flurry of candidates in safe seats who are close allies of Starmer. The Labour leader has insisted he has only sought to have the “highest quality” candidates.