Hackney (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Hackney councillor brands the Labour Party “rotten” following Diane Abbott’s suspension, triggering sharp local criticism and sparking political backlash.
Abbott lost the Labour whip yesterday for the second time in two years. Abbott has been the representative for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987.
She defended comments she made regarding racism in an interview with BBC Radio 4 earlier in the day, which resulted in her first suspension in 2023.
Asked if she stood by her original comments, Abbott said:
“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,”
she said.
“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 don’t know why people would say that.”
Abbott told the BBC today that it was “obvious” the party leadership “wants me out” after Labour revealed last night that she had been suspended pending an investigation.
Claudia Turbet-Delof, a Hackney councillor who left Labour in 2024 with two other colleagues to start the Independent Socialist party, was harsh in her response.
“In my view, the party is rotten at its core,”
she told the Citizen.
“It no longer has space for debate, for nuance, or for understanding the complexities of people’s lives.
Whether MPs or councillors, elected representatives are expected to fall in line, stay silent, and prioritise party image over their communities.”
She said this is exactly why she and fellow Independent Socialist councillors Penny Wrout and Fliss Premru left the party.
“We could no longer stand by while our voices—and the voices of our residents—were silenced.
The Labour party today is like a dying tree: its roots and core have decayed, and any branch that dares to grow with hope is quickly and completely cut off.
What is happening – yet again – with Diane Abbott is not just about one MP, it’s about the erasure of political integrity, of radical Black women in politics, and of the possibility of a better future for working-class communities.”
Cllr Turbet-Delof added that
“Labour is not the party of justice or compassion anymore. It is a party of silence, cruelty, punishment and political calculation.”
On Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, she said:
“He is not a leader of nations, he is a weak and desperate power-grabbing man whose biggest legacy will be creating a political platform for the far right.”
Abbott’s first suspension followed a letter she wrote to the Observer in 2023 which read:
“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. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.
In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”
The letter was written in reaction to a remark that racism in the UK affects Irish, Jewish, and Traveller people.
After a protracted prohibition, Abbott eventually was readmitted to the party in May 2024 after retracting her remarks, which Starmer referred to as “antisemitic.”
In March of last year, Cllr. Turbet-Delof was one of the demonstrators who demanded Abbott’s reinstatement.
Labour in Hackney declined to respond. Other political parties in the borough have also been contacted.
Why does the Hackney councillor describe Labour as ‘rotten’ after Abbott’s suspension?
The Hackney councillor describes Labour as “rotten” following Diane Abbott’s suspension because they view the party’s leadership, particularly under Keir Starmer, as engaging in duplicity, hypocrisy, and malicious treatment of Abbott—a long-serving, trailblazing Black MP who has faced extensive abuse and discrimination throughout her career.
The councillor sees Abbott’s suspension not as a fair disciplinary measure but as part of a broader pattern of unfair targeting and silencing of key figures on the party’s left, especially those who have historically inspired and mobilized marginalized communities.
Moreover, there is a sense that Abbott, who remains popular within her local Constituency Labour Party (CLP), is being unjustly punished and pushed out, which many supporters interpret as a betrayal and a “slap in the face.” Critics argue that Starmer’s approach undermines important caucuses within Labour and damages trust among grassroots members.