Labour must expel Diane Abbott after she claims Jewish people cannot suffer “racism”

The Labour Party has suspended Diane Abbott after she claimed that Jewish people cannot suffer “racism”.

Ms Abbott, who has a history of minimising antisemitism in the Labour Party, made the claim in a letter to The Observer newspaper.

The letter, published today, was in response to an article by Tomiwa Owolade in last week’s newspaper which commented on a new report on ethnic inequality that revealed that “Irish, Jewish and Traveller people are among the most abused. In fact, the two groups most likely to say they have experienced racist abuse, according to the survey, are Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities and Jewish people. More than 60% of Gypsy and Traveller people reported that they had experienced some form of racist assault. More than 55% of Jewish people report the same.”

In her letter, Ms Abbott wrote: “Tomiwa Owolade claims that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from ‘racism’. They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable. 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. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”

Following an outcry, Ms Abbott issued a retraction, writing: “I wish to wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and dissociate myself from them. The errors arose in an initial draft being sent. But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused. Racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others. Once again, I would like to apologise publicly for the remarks and any distress caused as a result of them.”

In the meantime, Labour has withdrawn the whip from Ms Abbott, pending an investigation.

​​A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “The Labour Party completely condemns these comments, which are deeply offensive and wrong. The Chief Whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott pending an investigation.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Diane Abbott’s claim that Jewish people cannot suffer ‘racism’ is outrageous in itself, but made all the more extraordinary given all that has unfolded in the Labour Party over the past few years. She and her allies on the far-left of the Party could never accept how bad antisemitism had become because they do not even acknowledge that it is a form of racism. We already made complaints against her, which the Party has never investigated. Her suspension now is past time, and must be the first step towards her expulsion from the Party.”

On the day of the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report, Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted a major complaint against Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party, and they must be investigated by the independent disciplinary process that the EHRC demanded and Sir Keir Starmer promised.

The Labour Party was found by the EHRC to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.