Diane Abbott's excuse disintegrates as MP had SEVEN DAYS to revise 'antisemitic' letter... and sent same 'draft' TWICE
Diane Abbott faces questions as her excuse disintegrates
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Diane Abbott submitted her "draft" letter on Jews and racism to a national newspaper on two separate occasions it has emerged, placing fresh scrutiny on the MP's conduct.
The letter was sent from the MP's own email address a week before its publication in the Observer on April 23 but Abbott made no effort to revise the contents in this time, the Jewish Chronicle has confirmed.
Abbott's initial email to the Observer was rebuffed with a request for Abbott to include a postal address, which she sent back three hours later attached to an identical letter.
Jake Wallis Simons, Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said: “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.”
Diane Abbott under the microscope
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In the letter, the suspended Labour MP wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people do not experience discrimination all their lives but face prejudice on a level akin to redheads.
The letter was swiftly branded by the Labour Party as "deeply offensive and wrong" and Diane Abbott had the whip removed.
The MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington has since said: “I wish to wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them.”
Abbott has been an MP since 1987, was the first black woman elected to Parliament, and served as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow secretary.
Labour leader, Kier Starmer, responded: “Diane Abbott has suffered a lot of racial abuse over many, many years – that doesn’t take away from the fact that I condemn the words she used and we must never accept the argument that there’s some sort of hierarchy of racism.
“I will never accept that, the Labour Party will never accept that, and that’s why we acted as swiftly as we did yesterday.”
Speaking on GB News last night, Nigel Farage said: “I think for Sir Keir Starmer this must be like Christmas has come early, another chance to prove that he really is cleaning up the Labour Party.
“He's got rid of Jeremy Corbyn. And now here was Jeremy Corbyn's shadow home secretary, giving Starmer a complete, open goal."
Diane Abbott faces an uncertain future
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Farage added: “I very much doubt myself that she'll be allowed to stand for the Labour Party at the next election. I think this is the end of Diane Abbott's career.”
A Labour party insider previously told GB News: “I am hopeful that the Labour Party’s internal disciplinary procedures will conclude she acted in an antisemitic and racist way and she will be expelled.”
Uncertainty surrounds Abbott's fate, with silence from the party over her standing again for her London constituency of Hackney North & Stoke Newington at the next general election.
GB News has reached out to Diane Abbott for comment.