“We call on Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party’s leadership to offer her both their unequivocal public support & to reinstate Diane as a Labour MP with immediate effect.”
We are pleased to publish below a letter from Hackney Labour Party activists
“As local residents and previous officers in Hackney North & Stoke Newington Labour Party, we write in solidarity with our MP Diane Abbott. The appalling racist and misogynist comments from tech boss and leading Tory donor Frank Hester reported by the Guardian were shocking, especially as they came after the murder of Jo Cox MP and two years before the brutal killing of the Tory MP Sir David Amess. But the vile remarks the Guardian reported were also sadly unsurprising. Hester’s alleged comments are yet another example and – by no means the most extreme – of the abuse Diane has endured over the past four decades in politics.
“The failure thus far of the Conservative Party to sever its links with Hester and to return the millions it has received from him suggests that Prime Minister Sunak’s supposed concern with ‘extremism’ is so much hypocritical cant. There is also a compelling case for an independent investigation into the award of lucrative NHS and other public sector contracts to Hester’s company.
“No politician’s record is perfect, but throughout her time as our MP Diane has been a champion of the most marginalised and of workers’ rights as NHS staff, Royal Mail workers, railworkers and teachers will all attest. We call on Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party’s leadership to offer her both their unequivocal public support and, nearly a year after her suspension, to reinstate Diane as a Labour MP with immediate effect.”
All signatures in a personal capacity:
George Binette, Ex-Trade Union Liaison Officer, Cllr Soraya Adejare, Brownswood ward, ex-Vice-Chair, Membership, Cllr Fliss Premru, Clissold ward, Amanda Bentham, Ex-Vice-Chair, Membership (now ex-Labour Party), Thomas Glasman, Ex-Secretary, Mike Hart, Ex-Social Media Officer, Elizabeth Henton, Ex-Assistant Secretary, Kathryn Johnson, Ex-Policy Officer and Labour Group Observer, Sue Millman, Ex-Chair, Margaret Renn, Ex-Secretary, Clisssold branch, Lucie J Scott, Ex-Vice-Chair, Campaigns and John Stewart, Ex-Representative Affiliated Trade Unions, all of Hackney North & Stoke Newington Labour Party.
- You can sign a Restore the Whip to Diane Abbott petition addressed to Keir Starmer here.
