Doubts raised over Diane Abbott’s Observer excuse

Oh dear. It seems that Diane Abbott’s antisemitism apology – dashed off on Sunday morning in a failed last-ditch attempt to stave off her suspension – has backfired somewhat spectacularly. The Jewish Chronicle has today published an article which calls into question Abbott’s account of how her letter downplaying racism against Jewish people came to be published by the Observer.

The former Shadow Home Secretary claimed that an initial draft of her letter was sent erroneously to the newspaper. But the JC says that Abbott’s letter was sent to the Observer twice from the MP’s own email account a week before it was published. The letter was identical each time it was sent, three hours apart, and the suspended Labour MP reportedly made no efforts to revise it in the seven days after it was sent.

As the JC points out, the fact that it was sent from her own email address – not from one controlled by an aide – suggests that she was entirely in control of the process.