Reinstate Diane Abbott! – John Stewart

“When Diane has disagreed with Labour leaderships over the years […] she has been shown to be right and the Labour leadership wrong.”

By John Stewart, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP

July 17th marks the one-year anniversary of the suspension of Diane Abbott MP from the Labour Party.

This is the second time that Labour has suspended Diane; she first lost the Whip in April 2023 after sending a letter to the Observer newspaper that her opponents within the Labour Party claimed was anti-semitic. After a long campaign by her local party members and constituents, the Whip was restored (just) in time for the 2024 General Election and Diane was re-elected as the Labour MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington. This second suspension happened in July 2025 after Diane was asked in an interview about the contents of her original letter and she responded that she has always opposed all racism and that she stood by her original comments.

For almost 40 years Diane has faithfully represented Hackney North & Stoke Newington in Parliament. At a time when Labour has lost support, she maintains extraordinary popularity, both among her constituents and among local Labour Party members. Her suspension may well have cost Labour votes in the recent local elections where the Party was reduced to just 9 councillors out of 57 on Hackney Council – down from the 50 we won at the last round of elections in 2022. While national issues and the massive unpopularity of Keir Starmer undoubtedly played the major role in the loss of Labour councillors, the resentment felt by party members at the control freakery imposed on our CLP and the shoddy treatment of Diane also played a role in alienating members, causing many to sit out the election campaign and may well have cost Labour several seats where the Greens won narrowly.

When Diane has disagreed with Labour leaderships over the years – on NHS funding, on student grants and fees, on benefit cuts to the poorest and most vulnerable, on standing against racism and opposing attacks on asylum seekers, on defending human rights and civil liberties as the last few governments have sought to restrict these, and on opposing Britain’s involvement in overseas wars and bombing campaigns – she has been shown to be right and the Labour leadership wrong. Her political opponents have falsely tried to accuse her, and many of us who support her, of anti-semitism, but Diane has a proud lifetime record of campaigning against all forms of racism, including that suffered by the large Jewish community in the north of her constituency.

Now, dozens of Diane’s local party members have put their name to a statement calling for incoming Party Leader, Andy Burnham, to restore the Whip. They include the last three elected CLP Chairs (our current Chair was imposed on us by the then Regional Director after the Greater London Labour Party effectively closed us down in July 2023 and then imposed their own choices to run our CLP). The highest profile signatory is probably Caroline Woodley, the former Mayor of Hackney defeated by the Greens in May. And we are joined by several former Labour councillors who lost their seats, despite their assiduous and conscientious work for their constituents as local residents turned against Labour due to the unpopular and discredited national leadership.

Labour members in Hackney and across the country have welcomed Andy Burnham’s statement that Labour needs to change. The control freakery, dishonesty, manipulation and outright cheating that characterised Labour under Keir Starmer’s leadership and the party machine built by Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney has led to a breakdown of trust between the Party and much of its membership, not to mention the wider British public. If Labour is to survive as a mass party capable of winning elections to government, it has to change radically and allow its members a democratic say in its policies and the candidates it stands for election to public office. As Andy Burnham takes over as Labour leader and Prime Minister, he can make an important start to that change by restoring the Labour Whip to Diane Abbott.

---

• John Stewart is a member of Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP. Read the statement signed by himself and other members of Diane’s Constituency Labour Party here.
• Sign the petition demanding the whip is restored to Diane Abbott here.
• If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.