It’s time to forgive Diane Abbott

Diane Abbott is a giant figure in the modern Labour party. As the first black woman ever to be elected to the House of Commons, and the longest serving black MP, she is an inspiration to black and brown communities – especially women – across the country. Abbott also wrote a crass and offensive letter to the Observer, in which she unfortunately, and utterly unsuccessfully, sought to distinguish racism from prejudice – in the process deeply offending the Jewish, Irish, and Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities. For a life-long campaigner against racism, this was an especially egregious error.

It was not only the reactions on social media that were swift. The Labour party suspended her from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) – so she now sits as an independent MP – and started an investigation into the behaviour. Almost simultaneously, Abbott herself apologised effusively, saying: 

‘I wish to wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them.