Starmer ‘treated me as a non-person’ during Tory donor row, says Abbott

Sir Keir Starmer treated Diane Abbott as a “non-person” after it was a reported a Tory donor had made offensive remarks about her, the veteran Labour MP has claimed.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, Ms Abbott also criticised the Prime Minister for his handling of her suspension from the party, saying she had been targeted as “one of the last leading left-wingers in the Parliamentary Labour Party”.

She said: “Keir Starmer is always saying, ‘It’s the new Labour Party’ … and how could you make it look more new than by getting rid of Diane Abbott?”

A Labour Party spokesperson denied there was a plan to “push her out” and said Sir Keir “has great respect” for her.

Ms Abbott, who has served as an MP since 1987 and was the first black woman to be elected to Parliament, was at the centre of a row earlier this year over comments allegedly made by Conservative donor Frank Hester.

Mr Hester was reported to have said Ms Abbott made him want to “hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

Condemnation

The remarks brought widespread condemnation, including from Sir Keir, but Ms Abbott told the BBC he “never reached out to me personally and did treat me as a non-person”.

She said: “If somebody was threatening to have you shot, you would have felt your party would have offered you more support, giving you advice on safety and security, even kind of commiserated with you. And none of that happened.”

At the time, it was reported Sir Keir had approached Ms Abbott – who was then suspended from the Labour Party – in the Commons chamber to offer his support, but replied only “I understand” to Ms Abbott’s request to have the whip restored to her.

She went on to criticise the handling of her year-long suspension from the Labour Party, saying she had felt “depressed” and believed it was an attempt to “get rid of me altogether as an MP”.

Ms Abbott had the whip withdrawn from her in April 2023 after she wrote to the Observer saying Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism “all their lives”, comments for which she apologised.

Labour later restored the whip to Ms Abbott during this year’s election campaign, allowing her to stand again as a Labour candidate.

‘In limbo’

But she told the BBC she felt she had been left “in limbo” and not spoken to as part of the investigation.

She said: “I think that Keir Starmer wanted to finish his clear-out of the left in the Parliamentary Labour Party and by writing a very ill-advised letter, I gave him the opportunity to move against me.

“And I think what they were trying to do was to string out and string out the investigation. So when a general election is around the corner, they could just move me out of the way as a Labour candidate because I wouldn’t be in the Parliamentary Labour Party, and they would parachute in someone else.”

She also claimed she had been offered a deal through a “third party” that would have seen her stand down as an MP in exchange for having the whip restored.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Keir Starmer has great respect for Diane Abbott and she continues to be an inspiration to many. There is no doubt that she has received the most abuse of any MP just because of her gender and the colour of her skin, and that is completely reprehensible and wrong.

“The party, including Keir Starmer, vocally condemned Frank Hester’s vile comments and reached out to Diane at the time to offer support.

“It’s simply wrong to say that there was any plan being pushed by the leadership to force her out. We continue to value Diane’s significant contribution to public life.”