Labour has announced a fresh investigation into Diane Abbott after she seemingly doubled down on comments she made in 2023 which suggested that Jews, Travellers and Irish people do not experience racism.
Writing a letter to The Observer two years ago, the veteran MP argued that the groups experienced prejudice but this was not the same as racism.
She wrote that those groups “undoubtedly experience prejudice” that was “similar” to the racism experienced by people of colour, but compared this to the prejudice faced by red-headed people.
"It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism,” she wrote.
Following the letter’s publication, Abbott was suspended from Labour pending an investigation, which subsequently allowed her to stand as a candidate for the party in last year’s general election, after party leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised her letter as “antisemitic”.
She also withdrew the comments and apologised “for any anguish caused”.
Now, though, she has told the BBC’s Reflections programme that she does not regret her remarks “at all”, saying: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know.
"You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them.
"But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. They are different types of racism."
And, asked whether she thought her comments in The Observer were wrong, she went on: “I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.
"I just... I don't know why people would say that."
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP also said she has become “a bit weary of people trying to pin the antisemitic label” on her and insisted that she had “spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting antisemitism”.
Abbott was shadow home secretary at the height of the antisemitism scandal that engulfed the party and repeatedly backed then-leader Jeremy Corbyn against allegations that he had allowed Jew-hatred to spread unchecked among its left-wing factions.
Following the BBC interview, a Labour Party spokesperson confirmed that it would review Abbott’s latest comments.
"There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We take these comments incredibly seriously, and will assess them in line with Labour Party's rules and procedures," they said.
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