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Veteran MP Diane Abbott was readmitted to the Parliamentary Labour party on Tuesday following her suspension for remarks about Jewish people, amid expectations she will not be allowed to stand as an official candidate at the July 4 general election.
One Labour official said Abbott, the leftwing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, had had the party whip restored.
However, The Times reported that Abbott will not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate at the election.
One Labour figure, who declined to be identified, also told the Financial Times that they anticipated Abbott would be blocked from standing as a party candidate.
Labour declined to comment. Abbott also declined to comment.
The expected move to stop Abbott being a Labour candidate will add to disquiet among the party’s leftwing MPs about leader Sir Keir Starmer’s “ruthless” style.
He has sought to pull Labour back to the centre ground of UK politics after his hard-left predecessor Jeremy Corbyn lost the 2019 election.
Abbott was suspended by Labour in April last year after suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people only experienced “prejudice” rather than racism in a letter to the Observer newspaper.
Abbott’s remarks damaged Starmer’s pledge to root out antisemitism within Labour after the Equality and Human Rights Commission found in 2020 that during Corbyn’s time as leader the party had failed to rein in anti-Jewish sentiment among some members.
She apologised and retracted her comments shortly after the Observer letter was published, but remained suspended from the Parliamentary Labour party.
An investigation into Abbott was completed by Labour’s ruling national executive committee in December, when she was instructed to apologise, according to the Labour figure.
The figure added it was a “volatile situation” regarding Abbott’s future, but that she had been offered the opportunity to step down “with dignity” ahead of the election.
Starmer said last week that Abbott’s case would be resolved before June 4, when Labour finalises its list of parliamentary candidates.
Abbott’s constituency is a safe Labour seat — she has a majority of more than 33,000.
She became the UK’s first black female MP on being elected in 1987.
Abbott spent most of her career on the backbenches before being appointed shadow home secretary by Corbyn. She returned to the backbenches under Starmer’s leadership.
She has been the subject of alleged derogatory remarks — Frank Hester, a leading Tory donor, was recorded stating in 2019 that Abbott made “you just want to hate all black women” and that she “need[s] to be shot”.
West Yorkshire Police are investigating whether Hester’s comments amount to a criminal offence.