Diane Abbott has said she will run for Labour in the general election. This comes after a fight over whether the party would choose her.
They talked about it for days, but finally the experienced left-winger said she was the “adopted Labour candidate” in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
This week has been mostly about a nasty fight over whether or not the party would choose her as its candidate for the spot.
Ms. Abbott also denied that she was one of several Labour MPs who had been offered peerages in exchange for stepping down.
She wrote on X, “I have never been offered a seat in the Lords, and I would not take one if it were offered to me.”
“I intend to run and to win as Labour’s candidate,” she said. The party hasn’t said anything yet.
After Sir Keir said he respected Ms. Abbott, she called him a “liar” later that same night. But she quickly took down the social media post.
A close friend, Baroness Chakrabarti, told her to “take some time” to think about whether she wants to run for Labour in the general election.
The Labour lord said that the way her “dear friend” was treated by the party was “appalling,” and she yelled at meetings that she would not be able to run again.
Since 1987, Ms. Abbott has been the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She was a junior cabinet minister under the former leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
When asked about a story in the Sunday Times that said Ms. Abbott was one of several Labour MPs who had been given peerages by the party, Ms. Cooper said, “I don’t know anything about that.”
It was said that the party’s ruling body would not let her run, but on Friday, Sir Keir Starmer, the leader, said she could still run for the party.
There had been rumors for days that she wouldn’t be able to run because she had been banned from running, even though she had been let back into Parliament as a Labour MP earlier this week before it was disbanded.
A message Ms. Abbott wrote to a newspaper saying that Jewish, Irish, and Traveller people don’t have to deal with racism “all their lives” led to a 13-month investigation into her.
Soon after her comments were made public, Ms. Abbott said she was sorry and took them back.
When she talked to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Baroness Chakrabarti said that the back and forth this week over whether she could stand had been “sordid” at times.
“It’s not good for Keir Starmer’s leadership, it’s not good for the Labour Party,” she told us.
She said the media reports that she would be stopped were caused by “anonymous briefings by overgrown schoolboys in suits.” She also said that she had been “personally assured by the leadership” that the reports were not authorized by the party.
“I hope she gives herself some time to think about what she wants to do.” As her friend, that’s exactly what I told her to do, and I hope she does it.
This week, Ms. Abbott said she wanted to keep her job as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington “as long as it is possible.”
Before Sir Keir told her she could run, she said the party leadership was trying to “exclude” her from Parliament.
On the BBC News website, there will be a full list of all the candidates in Hackney North and Stoke Newington after nominations close on Friday.
What does Diane Abbott do?
In 1987, she was the first black woman to be voted to Parliament. She was the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in east London.
After a long time on the backbenches, she was moved to Ed Miliband’s front bench after her failed 2010 bid to become Labour leader.
Has been a shadow health secretary and a shadow international development secretary in the past.
She was made his shadow home secretary in 2016 and held the job until 2020. She was a close friend of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.