Sir Keir Starmer is facing demands to reinstate Dianne Abbott to Labour, following the defection of Natalie Elphicke to the Labour Party.
Questions have been asked over the Labour leader's decision to accept the MP for Dover, who was forced to apologise for her comments about her ex-husband’s victims less than 24 hours after crossing the floor.
Elphicke, who was elected in 2019, took over from her husband who was jailed for two years in September 2020 for sexually assaulting two women.
After his conviction, Elphicke claimed the allegations were "false", saying he had been punished for being "charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful".
Sir Keir Starmer is facing demands to reinstate Dianne Abbott to Labour, following the defection of Natalie Elphicke to the Labour Party
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She was on the right of the Tory party, supporting Liz truss in the 2022 leadership contest and being a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group.
Shami Chakrabarti called for the whip to be restored to Diane Abbott given the "tent is big enough" for Elphicke.
The Labour peer told The Independent: “Like others, I look forward to Ms Elphicke’s first in-depth broadcast interview about her political journey to the Labour Party.
“In the meantime, if the tent is big enough for her, I feel sure that Britain’s first Black woman MP, who has sustained more racist and misogynist abuse than anyone, will have her whip restored urgently."
Abbott was suspended last year after being accused of anti-semitism. She published a letter in the Guardian which seemingly suggested Jewish People are not “subject to racism”.
She said: ”In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus”.
Abbott was suspended last year after being accused of anti-semitism. She published a letter in the Guardian which seemingly suggested Jewish People are not “subject to racism”
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While she acknowledged that they do suffer from prejudice, she claimed that this is not the same as racism.
Her letter was written in response to an article by Tomiwa Owolade in the Sunday paper about a report on inequality in Britain, which suggested that Jews and Travellers face more racism than black people.
Following the backlash to the letter, Abbott apologised and withdrew it.
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Abbott, who is the longest-serving black MP, said it was an initial draft of the letter that was not meant for publication.
She added that racism “takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects… as have Irish people, Travellers and many others”.
