-Sn!PeR- Posted May 28, 2024 Posted May 28, 2024 Diane Abbott has been readmitted as a Labour MP, the BBC understands, but it is unclear whether she will stand for the party at the general election. The former shadow home secretary was suspended in April 2023 after saying Jewish, Irish and Traveller people do not face racism "all their lives". Her suspension meant she would not be able to stand for Labour on 4 July. Party officials had tried to broker a deal by which she would get the whip back in return for standing down. It is not clear if the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP has accepted that arrangement. Ms Abbott apologised and withdrew her remarks shortly after they were published, in a letter to the Observer newspaper. Labour has not confirmed who its candidate will be in the Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat. Ms Abbott has been contacted for a comment. BBC Newsnight revealed earlier that the party's investigation, launched over 13 months ago, was completed in December 2023. Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) issued her with a "formal warning" for "engaging in conduct that was in the opinion of the NEC, prejudicial and grossly detrimental to the Labour Party". It said it expected her to undertake an "online, e-learning module" which a source said was a two-hour antisemitism awareness course. Ms Abbot did the module in February, after which it is understood she received an email from Labour's chief whip acknowledging she had completed it. Ms Abbott, who became the first black woman to be elected to Parliament in 1987, was a close ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and served as his shadow home secretary. Mr Corbyn, who was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 for saying the scale of antisemitism within Labour's ranks had been "dramatically overstated" by his opponents, has confirmed he will stand against the party. He will contest Islington North, which he has held since 1983, as an independent candidate. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-69040616
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