Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who served as the Shadow Home Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. As a member of the Labour Party, she has held various positions in successive Shadow Cabinets; she was the country's first black female MP and is the longest-serving black MP in the House of Commons.
Diane Abbott | |
---|---|
![]() Abbott in 2017 | |
Shadow Home Secretary | |
In office 6 October 2016 – 4 April 2020 | |
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Preceded by | Andy Burnham |
Succeeded by | Nick Thomas-Symonds |
Shadow Secretary of State for Health | |
In office 27 June 2016 – 6 October 2016 | |
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Preceded by | Heidi Alexander |
Succeeded by | Jonathan Ashworth |
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development | |
In office 13 September 2015 – 27 June 2016 | |
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Preceded by | Mary Creagh |
Succeeded by | Kate Osamor |
Shadow Minister for Public Health | |
In office 9 October 2010 – 8 October 2013 | |
Leader | Ed Miliband |
Preceded by | Anne Milton |
Succeeded by | Luciana Berger |
Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington | |
Assumed office 11 June 1987 | |
Preceded by | Ernie Roberts |
Majority | 33,188 (58.4%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Diane Julie Abbott 27 September 1953 Paddington, London, England |
Political party | Labour |
Other political affiliations | Socialist Campaign Group |
Spouse(s) | David Ayensu-Thompson
( m. 1991; div. 1993) |
Children | 1 son |
Education | Harrow County School for Girls |
Alma mater | Newnham College, Cambridge |
Website | Official website |
Born in Paddington to a British Jamaican family, Abbott studied History at Newnham College, Cambridge. She worked in the civil service and as a reporter for Thames Television and TV-am before becoming a press officer for the Greater London Council. Joining Labour, she was elected to Westminster City Council in 1982 and then as an MP in 1987, being re-elected in every general election since. She has faced disproportionate sexism and racism as a public figure, individually receiving almost half of all abusive tweets directed at women MPs during the 2017 election campaign.[2]
Critical of Tony Blair's New Labour project which pushed the party to the centre during the 1990s, in the House of Commons Abbott voted against several Blairite policies, including the launching of the Iraq War and the proposed introduction of ID cards. She stood for the Labour Party leadership on a leftist platform in 2010, losing to Ed Miliband, who appointed her Shadow Minister for Public Health.
Abbott supported Jeremy Corbyn's bid to become Labour leader in 2015. After he succeeded, she became Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, then Shadow Health Secretary, and eventually Shadow Home Secretary. As a key Corbyn ally, she supported his leftward push in the party. She unsuccessfully attempted to be the Labour candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election, and backed the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to retain UK membership of the European Union.
Early life and career
Abbott was born to Jamaican parents in Paddington, London, in 1953. Her father was a welder and her mother was a nurse.[3] She has stated in interviews that both of her parents left school at the age of 14.[4] She attended Harrow County School for Girls (a grammar school) and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read history, achieving a lower second class degree (2:2).[5][6] At Cambridge, she was tutored by historian Simon Schama.[7]
After university, Abbott became an administration trainee (a fast-track route to senior positions in HM Civil Service)[8] at the Home Office (1976 to 1978), and then a Race Relations Officer at the National Council for Civil Liberties (1978 to 1980).[9] She was a researcher and reporter at Thames Television from 1980 to 1983, and then a researcher at the breakfast television company TV-am from 1983 to 1985.[10] She was a press officer at the Greater London Council under Ken Livingstone from 1985 to 1986, and Head of Press and Public Relations at Lambeth Council from 1986 to 1987.[9]
Political career
Abbott's career in politics began in 1982 when she was elected to Westminster City Council, serving until 1986. In 1983 she was active in the Black Sections movement, alongside Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz, campaigning for greater ethnic minority political representation.[11][10] In 1985 she unsuccessfully fought to be selected in Brent East, losing out to Ken Livingstone.[12] In 1987 she was elected to the House of Commons, replacing the deselected serving Labour MP Ernie Roberts as MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington. Abbott was the first black woman to become an MP.[13]
Abbott's speech on civil liberties, in the debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008,[14] won The Spectator magazine's "Parliamentary Speech of the Year" award,[15] and further recognition at the 2008 Human Rights awards.[16]
Abbott has served on a number of parliamentary committees on social and international issues and held shadow ministerial positions. For most of the 1990s she also served on the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons.[17] She went on to serve on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.[17]
Abbott chairs the All-Party Parliamentary British-Caribbean Group and the All-Party Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Group.[17]
Abbott is founder of the London Schools and the Black Child initiative, which aims to raise educational achievement levels amongst black children.[18]
In May 2010, she was re-elected in her constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, with a doubled majority on an increased turn-out.[19] She was again re-elected in 2015 with 62% of the vote.[20]
At Goldsmiths' College, on 26 October 2012, a jubilee celebration was held to honour Abbott's 25 years in parliament, with a series of contributions by Linton Kwesi Johnson, Kadija Sesay, Tunday Akintan and others.[21][22]
2010 leadership election and frontbench role
![](../I/m/Diane_Abbott%2C_New_Statesman_hustings.jpg)
On 20 May 2010, Abbott announced her intention to stand in the Labour leadership contest. She secured the necessary 33 nominations by 9 June, assisted by the withdrawal of left-wing candidate John McDonnell and support from David Miliband and Jack Straw, among others.[23][24] On Saturday, 25 September 2010, Ed Miliband was announced as the new leader of the Labour Party, Abbott having been eliminated in the first round of voting after securing 7.24% of votes.[25]
Abbott was later appointed Shadow Minister for Public Health by Ed Miliband, taking shadow responsibility for a range of issues including children's health, maternity services, sexual health, tobacco, nursing, obesity and alcohol abuse.[26] Following her move onto the front bench, the Telegraph said on 27 September 2011 that Abbott had "become one of Labour’s best front bench performers".[27]
On the issue of abortion, Abbott has become a vocal 'pro-choice’ supporter, opposing moves towards changing abortion counselling policy, and reducing the abortion time limit. She resigned from a cross-party group on abortion counselling saying it was no more than a front to push forward an anti-abortion agenda without debate in parliament.[28]
On 5 February 2013, following the Second Reading, Abbott voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.[29]
Removal from the frontbench and 2015 London mayoral election
On 8 October 2013, Abbott was sacked as shadow public health minister in a reshuffle by Labour leader Ed Miliband,[30] and replaced as Shadow Public Health Minister by Luciana Berger.[31] On 23 June 2014, Abbott had stated she would consider standing in the 2016 London mayoral election as Mayor of London.[32] On 30 November 2014, Abbott announced her intention to put herself forward to become Labour's candidate at the London mayoral elections in 2016.[33] She was unsuccessful in her bid for Labour's 2015 London mayoral election nomination.
She was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[34]
Return to the frontbench
A close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Abbott was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate him as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.[35] Following Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Abbott was appointed to the post of Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.[36]
On 27 June 2016, after the resignations of many of Labour's ministerial team in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Abbott was promoted to the position of Shadow Health Secretary.[37]
On 6 October 2016, after the resignation of Andy Burnham, Abbott was appointed Shadow Home Secretary. She was sworn of the Privy Council on 15 February 2017.[38]
2017 general election
![](../I/m/Diane_Abbot_Corbyn_leadership_rally_August_2016.jpg)
On 2 May 2017, during that year's general election campaign, Labour's pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers was overshadowed by Abbott's inability to give accurate funding figures. In an interview on LBC Radio with Nick Ferrari, she repeatedly struggled to explain how the promise would be funded. In the interview, Abbott frequently paused, shuffled her papers and gave out the wrong figures. When asked about her performance, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, insisted he was not embarrassed by what many pundits called a "car crash" interview.[39]
In a further interview conducted by ITV on 5 May 2017, as the 2017 local elections results were being announced, Abbott was again unable to give accurate figures on the Labour party's performance suggesting that the party had a net loss of 50 seats. However, her figure was corrected by the interviewer who stated that Labour had in fact lost 125 seats, at which point Abbott said that the last figures she had seen were a net loss of around 100.[40]
Appearing on Andrew Marr's Sunday morning programme for the BBC on 28 May, Abbott's apparent support for the IRA nearly 35 years ago came up, along with some parliamentary votes Marr thought questionable. These included her advocacy of the abolition of "conspiratorial groups" such as MI5 and Special Branch in the late 1980s, both of which she said had been successfully reformed. She defended a vote opposing the proscription of a list of groups, including al-Qaida, on the basis that some of the others had the status of dissidents in their country of origin and Abbott would have voted to ban al-Qaida in isolation.[41] According to Sam Coates in The Times, this appearance was arranged without the consent of Labour's campaign team.[42]
On 5 June 2017, during a Sky News interview, Abbott was unable to answer questions about the Harris report on how to protect London from terror attacks. She insisted that she had read the report, but was unable to recall any of the 127 recommendations. When asked if she could remember the specific recommendations, Abbott said "I think it was an important review and we should act on it".[43][44] Abbott also denied reports that Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were attempting to stop her from making broadcasts.[42][45] The next day, Abbott withdrew at the last minute – citing illness – from a joint interview on Woman's Hour on 6 June, in which she had been due to face her Conservative frontbench opposite number Amber Rudd.[46] On 7 June, Corbyn announced that Abbott was "not well" and had stepped aside in her role as Shadow Home Secretary. Lyn Brown was temporarily assigned to replace her.[47] Barry Gardiner said in a radio interview on LBC that Abbott had been diagnosed with having a "long-term" medical condition, and was "coming to terms with that".[47]
In spite of these controversies, Abbott was re-elected in her seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, receiving 75% of the constituency's votes with an increased majority of over 35,000.[48] The following week it became known that Abbott had been diagnosed as suffering from type 2 diabetes in 2015.[49][50] "During the election campaign, everything went crazy – and the diabetes was out of control, the blood sugar was out of control", she told The Guardian. Dealing with six or seven interviews in a row became problematic because she was not eating enough food which forced a break upon her. The condition is back under control.[49] Abbott returned to the role of Shadow Home Secretary on 18 June.[51]
Since 2017
On 2 October 2019, Abbott made history by becoming the first black MP at the dispatch box at Prime Minister's Questions.[52] She served as a temporary stand-in for the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, whilst First Secretary of State Dominic Raab stood in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[53]
On 23 February 2020, Abbott said she would be standing down as Shadow Home Secretary upon the election of a new Labour leader. She stood down on 4 April and was succeeded by Nick Thomas-Symonds the following day.[54]
In April 2020, she was appointed to the Home Affairs Select Committee.[55]
Media work
Until her appointment as a shadow minister in October 2010, Abbott appeared alongside media personality and former Conservative politician Michael Portillo on the BBC's weekly politics digest This Week. Abbott and Portillo have known each other since their schooldays, during which they appeared in joint school productions of Romeo and Juliet (although not in the title roles), and of Macbeth as Lady Macduff and Macduff respectively.[56]
In August 2012, the BBC Trust ruled that payments to Abbott for her appearances on This Week were made in breach of BBC guidelines that banned payments to MPs who were representing their political parties. For her part, Abbott had correctly declared the payments in the Parliamentary Register of Members' Interests. The Trust also said that Abbott had appeared on the show too often.[57]
Abbott is a frequent public speaker,[58] newspaper contributor[59] and TV performer, appearing on programmes including Have I Got News for You,[60] Celebrity Come Dine with Me[61] and Cash in the Celebrity Attic.[62]
Abbott was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for her work on London Schools and the Black Child, and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.[63]
Political positions
Abbott has a record of differing from some party policies, voting against the Iraq War,[64] opposing ID cards and campaigning against the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons.[65][66]
Abortion rights
Abbott supported a number of pro-choice amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (now Act).[67][68] (along with Katy Clark MP and John McDonnell MP[69]) – including leading on NC30 Amendment of the Abortion Act 1967: Application to Northern Ireland.[70] Writing for The Guardian, Abbott argued that
When it comes to the right to choose, women in Northern Ireland are second-class citizens. They are denied the NHS treatment and funding for abortion that is permitted to every other woman in the United Kingdom.[71]
It was reported that the Labour Government at the time (in particular Harriet Harman[67][68]) asked MPs not to table these pro-choice amendments (and at least until Third Reading) and then allegedly used parliamentary mechanisms in order to prevent a vote accordingly.[67] Speaking in the debate in Parliament, Abbott criticised these "manoeuvres":
I speak against the programme motion because—and I say this with no pleasure—it and the order of discussion appear to be a shabby manoeuvre by Ministers to stop the full debate of some very important matters. I appreciate that Ministers did not intend this to be a Bill about abortion. I am open to the argument that we should have another piece of legislation that would enable a full debate on most of the matters in relation to abortion that have been raised as amendments and new clauses to the Bill, but there is a special case for debating and voting on the particular new clause that I tabled to extend the 1967 Act to Northern Ireland.[72]
Saudi Arabia
Abbott criticised David Cameron's government for its continued support for Saudi Arabian-led military intervention in Yemen. In March 2016, Abbott wrote: "over the past year alone, Britain has sold around £6bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, whose campaign in Yemen is targeting civilians – 191 such attacks have collectively been reported by the UN, HRW and Amnesty."[73]
2016 EU membership referendum
Abbott campaigned and supported the Labour Party's official preference for the remain campaign in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[74][75]
However, in January 2017, Abbott stated that Labour could oppose the bill to trigger Article 50 if Labour's amendments were rejected.[76] She abstained from voting on the second reading of the Brexit Bill, after becoming ill hours before the vote,[77] and later voted in favour at the third and final reading.
Windrush scandal
Abbott wrote to Sajid Javid demanding that he publish the figures for people caught up in the Windrush scandal, and also tell how many Commonwealth citizens lost their jobs, became homeless and were prevented from using public services. She wrote that "warm words are not enough", and maintained that transparency was needed to give the Windrush generation confidence ministers have come to grips with what is "clearly a systemic problem at the Home Office. In order to make good on your promise to do right by the Windrush generation and begin to right this historic wrong, you must stop covering up the extent of the Windrush crisis and publish these figures. (...) It is unacceptable and frankly scandalous that the extent of the Windrush crisis is yet to be revealed and that the home secretary is still to publish these figures. As the Windrush scandal shows, the hostile environment inevitably catches our fellow citizens who are legally entitled to be here in its net. The government now needs to stop covering up the true human cost of the hostile environment."[78]
In August 2018, Abbott complained that there were still delays in settling Windrush claims, saying: "From the Windrush scandal to immigration detention, to these outrageous delays – it is long past time that the government takes responsibility for leaving people distressed and destitute."[79]
Comments about Mao Zedong
In 2008, during a BBC One This Week interview between Abbott, Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil about who was history's worst dictator, Abbott said about the Chinese leader Mao Zedong: "I suppose some people will judge that on balance Mao did more good than harm... He led his country from feudalism, he helped to defeat the Japanese and he left his country on the verge of the great economic success they are having now." She finished by saying: "I was just putting the case for Mao."[80][81]
Political controversies
Education of Abbott's son
Abbott's decision in 2003 to send her son to the private City of London School after criticising colleagues for sending their children to selective schools, which she herself described as "indefensible" and "intellectually incoherent", caused controversy and criticism.[82][83][84][85]
According to the Daily Mirror, she said: "I'd done a lot of work on how black boys underachieve in secondary schools so I knew what a serious problem it was. I knew what could happen to my son if he was sent to the wrong school and got in with the wrong crowd. I realised they were subjected to peer pressure and when that happens it’s very hard for a mother to save her son. Once a black boy is lost to the world of gangs it's very hard to get them back and I was genuinely very fearful of what could happen."[86]
Her son contacted a radio phone-in to say that his mother was following his own wishes: "She's not a hypocrite, she just put what I wanted first instead of what people thought", he told LBC. He added that he had wanted to go private rather than attend a local state school in Abbott's Hackney constituency.[87][88][89]
Register of Members' Interests
In 2004, following a complaint made by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, Abbott was investigated by the Committee on Standards and Privileges regarding payments she had received from the BBC. The committee found that she had failed to declare earnings of £17,300 in the Register of Members' Interests she had received for appearances on the television programme This Week. The Committee upheld the complaint and required Abbott to apologise to the House.[90]
Comments on race
In 1996, Abbott was criticised after she claimed that at her local hospital "blonde, blue-eyed Finnish girls" were unsuitable as nurses because they had "never met a black person before".[91] In response, Marc Wadsworth, executive member of the Anti-Racist Alliance, who is half-Finnish, pointed out that the then-current Miss Finland, Lola Odusoga, is black, of Nigerian and Finnish descent. "She's a black Finn like me," he said. Abbott's position was supported by fellow Labour MP Bernie Grant: "Bringing someone here from Finland who has never seen a black person before and expecting them to have some empathy with black people is nonsense. Scandinavian people don't know black people—they probably don't know how to take their temperature".[92][93]
In 2010, in defending her decision to send her son to a private school, she asserted that "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children", prompting criticism about this perceived slight on white mothers.[94]
On 4 January 2012, Abbott tweeted that: "White people love playing 'divide and rule' We should not play their game", which again led to widespread criticism, including accusations of racism.[95] Abbott later apologised for "any offence caused", claiming that she had not intended to "make generalisations about white people". Abbott also stated in an interview with Andrew Neil that her tweet referred to the history of the British Empire.[96][97][98] The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called her comments a "stupid and crass generalisation". Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative MP, said: "This is racism. If this was a white member of Parliament saying that all black people want to do bad things to us he would have resigned within the hour or been sacked."[99] Members of the public lodged complaints, but the Metropolitan Police stated that no investigation would be launched, and no charges would be brought against her, saying she "did not commit a criminal offence."[100]
IRA
In May 2017, The Sunday Times reported that Abbott backed the IRA in a 1984 interview with Labour and Ireland, a pro-republican journal.[101][102] In the 1984 interview, Abbott criticised the Unionist population of Northern Ireland as an "enclave of white supremacist ideology comparable to white settlers in Zimbabwe", and called for their views to be ignored on the question of Unification, adding "Ireland is our struggle — every defeat of the British state is a victory for all of us. A defeat in Northern Ireland would be a defeat indeed".[101][103]
In May 2017, while Shadow Home Secretary, she was asked by Andrew Marr whether she regretted her comments on the IRA. Abbott replied that "[i]t was 34 years ago and I've moved on".[104]
Charging fees for speeches to students
In 2017, Abbott was criticised after it emerged that in 2011, she charged the University of Birmingham £1,750 for a 50-minute speech. An online petition called on Abbott to repay the money to be used for educational purposes.[105]
Online abuse
In a Guardian article in February 2017, Abbott wrote about receiving racist and sexist abuse online every day, such as threats of rape.[106] A few days later, in an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Abbott proposed a parliamentary inquiry into the sexist and racist abuse of MPs in social media and the way Twitter and Facebook investigate cases which arise.[107] An Amnesty International report found that Abbott was the subject of almost half of all abusive tweets about female MPs on Twitter during the 2017 election campaign, receiving ten times more abuse than any other MP.[2]
Personal life
Abbott had a brief relationship with Jeremy Corbyn, who later became the Labour leader, when he was a councillor in north London in the late 1970s,[108][109]. In 1991 she married David P Ayensu-Thompson,[110] a Ghanaian architect. They had one son together (James, born in 1992) before divorcing in 1993.[11][3][111] Abbott chose her Conservative MP voting pair, Jonathan Aitken, as her son's godfather.[112]
In 2007, Abbott began learning the piano under the tutelage of Paul Roberts, Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, for the TV programme Play It Again.[113] She performed Frédéric Chopin's Prelude No. 4 in E minor before an audience.[113]
In 2015, Abbott was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.[49][50]
References
- "Diane Abbott". Desert Island Discs. 18 May 2008. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- Peck, Tom (5 September 2017). "Diane Abbott received almost half of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs before election, poll finds". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. (1999). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Basic Civitas Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00071-5. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
- "Shelf Life: Diane Abbott". www.penguin.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- "Diane Abbott: "Jamaicans have a lot of self-belief, you know"". Politics Home. 7 March 2019. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- "UK | Magazine | Faces of the week". BBC News. 7 November 2003. Archived from the original on 21 May 2006. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "Simon Schama on the American right". BBC News. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- "Home | Civil Service Fast Stream". Faststream.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- "Vote 2001: Candidates: Diane Abbott". BBC News. 2001. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- Wadsworth, Marc (15 June 2017), "Diane Abbott: 'She Won't Be Quitting Any Time Soon'" Archived 16 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Voice.
- Bush, Stephen (17 January 2017), "Having the last laugh" Archived 6 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, New Statesman.
- Milne, Seumas (29 April 2015), "From the archive, 29 April 1985: Ken Livingstone wins fight for Brent East nomination" Archived 27 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian.
- "Pioneers: The First Asian and Black MPs". Houses of Parliament. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster (11 June 2008). "Hansard 11 June 2008 col 379". Publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 24 April 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- "Parliamentarian of the Year Awards Recipients 2008". The Spectator. 20 November 2008. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- "The Law Society". The Law Society. 9 December 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "Diane Abbott: Labour parliamentary candidate for Hackney North". Hackney Citizen. 25 April 2010. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "London Schools and the Black Child (LSBC)". Blackeducation.info. Archived from the original on 31 December 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "Diane Abbott wins Hackney North and Stoke Newington with massive majority". Myhackney.co.uk. 7 May 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "Ms Diane Abbott MP". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
- "A Jubilee of a Different Kind: Celebrating Diane Abbott's 25 years as an MP". Goldsmiths, University of London. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- "A Jubilee of a Different Kind". jubileeofadifferentkind.wordpress.com. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- "Diane Abbott goes through to next Labour leader round". BBC News. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
- Stratton, Allegra (9 June 2010). "David Miliband keeps Diane Abbott in Labour leadership race". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 April 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- Kite, Melissa (26 September 2010). "Labour: Voting system conjures up a gripping finish". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- "Diane Abbott appointed Shadow Junior Minister for Public Health" Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Hackney Gazette, 11 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
- "The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left 2011: 25–51". The Daily Telegraph. London. 27 September 2011. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- Sarah Boseley, "Diane Abbott resigns from abortion counselling working group" Archived 1 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 26 January 2012.
- "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 05 Feb 2013". Parliament.uk. 5 February 2013. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
- "Diane Abbott axed as shadow health minister by Ed Miliband" Archived 29 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 8 October 2013.
- Grice, Andrew (8 October 2013). "Diane Abbott attacks Labour's stance on immigration". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 8 October 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
- Cecil, Nicholas (23 June 2014). "'Diane Abbott is Labour supporters' top choice to run for London Mayor,' new poll reveals". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- "Diane Abbott planning to run for Mayor of London". BBC News. 30 November 2014. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- Eaton, George (26 January 2015). "The Labour left demand a change of direction – why their intervention matters". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election?" Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine New Statesman, 15 June 2015.
- "Shadow Cabinet: Who's In And Who's Out?". Sky News. 14 September 2015. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Grierson, Jamie; Anushka Asthana (27 June 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn unveils new shadow cabinet after raft of resignations". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- "Orders approved at the Privy Council held by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 15th February 2017" (PDF). Privy Council, UK. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
- Abbott, Diane (2 May 2017). "Diane Abbott says she 'misspoke' on Labour's police policy". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 May 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- Maidment, Jack (5 May 2017). "Diane Abbott Labour Count Error". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 May 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- Syal, Rajeev (28 May 2017). "Diane Abbott compares IRA views to changing hairstyles". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- Coates, Sam (3 June 2017). "Labour frontbench fury as Diane Abbott goes rogue". The Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.(subscription required)
- Jamieson, Sophie (6 June 2017). "Diane Abbott suffers yet another car crash interview, as she flounders on details of anti-terror report". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- Austin, Henry (6 June 2017). "Diane Abbott struggles with questions on recent London terror report in latest bungled interview". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 25 June 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- Watts, Joe (6 June 2017). "Diane Abbott pulls out of Woman's Hour election debate with Amber Rudd after another bungled interview". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- Stewart, Heather (6 June 2017). "Diane Abbott pulls out of Woman's Hour debate due to illness". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- Walker, Peter; Heather Stewart (7 June 2017). "Diane Abbott to step aside 'for the period of her ill health', Corbyn says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 7 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- Horton, Helena (9 June 2017). "'Vindicated' Diane Abbott celebrates as she wins biggest ever majority". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
- Asthana, Anushka; Stewart, Heather (13 June 2017). "Diane Abbott reveals illness and hits out at 'vicious' Tory campaign". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- "Diane Abbott reveals she has type 2 diabetes". BBC News. 13 June 2017. Archived from the original on 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
- "Diane Abbott back in shadow cabinet after diabetes struggle". BBC News. 18 June 2017. Archived from the original on 18 June 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- "Abbott first black MP at PMQs despatch box". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 October 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- D'Arcy, Mark (2 October 2019). "PMQs verdict: Raab and Abbott's first duel". Archived from the original on 3 October 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- Baker, Tim (23 February 2020). "Diane Abbott to stand down from shadow cabinet when new Labour leader is elected". Evening Standard. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- "Committees - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. 11 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- "Have I Got News For You with Jimmy Savile and Diane Abbott". Have I Got News For You. 28 May 1999. BBC. BBC 2.
- "BBC payments to MP Diane Abbott 'breached guidelines'". BBC News. 30 August 2012. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- "About Diane". Dianeabbott.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- Abbott, Diane. "Diane Abbott – Comment is free". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- "Episode 2, Series 50, Have I Got News for You - BBC One". Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
- High Street Ken (12 January 2011). "Diary: Diane's appetite for losing". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
- "Two Programmes – Cash in the Celebrity Attic, Series 6, Diane Abbott". BBC. 13 January 2011. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who". Grassroot Diplomat. 15 March 2015. Archived from the original on 20 May 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- O'Leary, Naomi (1 May 2012), "Diane Abbott – 'Cambridge was the making of me’" Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Cambridge Student.
- Riddell, Mary (16 June 2010). "Diane Abbott: 'It's very lonely being a single mother'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- "Profile: Diane Abbott". BBC News. 9 June 2010. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- Galbraith, Rebecca (9 March 2009). "Harriet Harman shouldn't be blogging on International Women's Day – she's suppressed women's rights for 12 years". LabourList. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- Watt, Nicholas (20 October 2008). "Harman to block Commons votes on liberalising abortion laws". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- "MPs pushing abortion rights in NI". BBC News. 23 July 2008. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- Commons, Table Office, House of. "House of Commons Amendments". publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- Abbott, Diane (23 July 2008). "Diane Abbott: A right to choose? Not in Northern Ireland". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- Westminster, Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 22 Oct 2008 (pt 0007)". publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- Abbott, Diane (25 March 2016). "British arms sales to Saudi Arabia are immoral and illegal". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
- Abbott, Diane (24 June 2018). "The dispossessed voted for Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn offers real change". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPs stand". BBC News. 22 June 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- Merrick, Rob (27 January 2017). "Labour may oppose Article 50 Bill if amendments rejected, Diane Abbott says". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 3 November 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
- Hughes, Laura (1 February 2017). "Diane Abbott fails to vote in Brexit Bill debate after going home with a migraine". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- Bulman, May (21 June 2018), "Government urged to 'come clean’ on scale of Windrush crisis as figures still withheld two months on" Archived 21 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent.
- Windrush citizens still waiting for cases to be resolved Archived 11 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian
- "Diane Abbott Once Argued That 'On Balance Mao Did More Good Than Harm'". Huffington Post. 27 November 2015. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
- Chu, Ben (29 November 2015). "After the little red book was flourished in Parliament, should Mao be rehabilitated?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 December 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
- Barrow, Becky (3 November 2003). "Abbott 'told ex-husband to be quiet over school'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- "Abbott speaks out on school row". BBC News. 31 October 2003. Archived from the original on 15 January 2007. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
- Rosen, Michael (December 2003). "Education: Dear Diane Abbott..." Socialist Review. Archived from the original on 25 February 2007. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
- Abbott, Diane (March 2004). "Education: Dear Michael Rosen..." Socialist Review. Archived from the original on 26 June 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
- Reade, Brian (21 June 2010). "Diane Abbott: I sent my son to private school so he wouldn't end up in a gang". Daily Mirror. London. Archived from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
- Tahir, Tariq; Ben Leapman (31 October 2003). "Abbot admits decision 'indefensible'". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- "Abbott's son defends going private". BBC News. 28 October 2003.
- Lightfoot, Liz (29 October 2003). "Public school son of Labour MP denies 'hypocrisy'". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- "House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges – Conduct of Ms Diane Abbott Second Report of Session 2003–04" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- Ward, Lucy (16 March 1999). "The Guardian Profile: Diane Abbott". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 1 February 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- Rentoul, John (29 November 1996), "Diane Abbott is sorry (For the record Miss Finland is also black)" The Independent (Internet Archive).
- "Diane Abbott: Finland Responds" Archived 23 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Spectator (archive), 7 December 1996, p. 18.
- Ward, Victoria (5 January 2012). "Diane-Abbott-no-stranger-to-controversy". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
- Ridge, Sophy. "MP Apologises After Tweet Sparks Race Row". Sky News. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- "Abbott questioned over 'divide and rule'". Archived from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- "MP Diane Abbott 'sorry' over Twitter race comments". BBC News. 5 January 2011. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
- Ross, Tim; Holehouse, Matthew (5 January 2012). "Diane Abbott forced to apologise in racism row after claiming 'White people love playing divide and rule'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- "MP Diane Abbott 'sorry' over Twitter race comments". BBC News. 5 January 2012. Archived from the original on 14 January 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- Bowater, Donna (9 January 2012). "Diane Abbott will not face police action over 'racist' tweet". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- Gilligan, Andrew (21 May 2017). "Abbott declared support for IRA defeat of Britain". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2017. (subscription required)
- Labour and Ireland, Vol 2, issue 5 (1984)
- Gilligan, Andrew (21 May 2017). "Diane Abbott backed victory for the IRA". andrewgilliganblog. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
- Osborne, Samuel (28 May 2017). "Diane Abbott refuses to say she 'regrets' calling for IRA to defeat British state". The Independent. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- Griffin, Jon (22 August 2013). "Diane Abbott charges £1,750 for speaking to students". Birmingham Post. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- Abbott, Diane (14 February 2017). "I fought racism and misogyny to become an MP. The fight is getting harder". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- Mason, Rowena (19 February 2017). "Diane Abbott on abuse of MPs: 'My staff try not to let me go out alone'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- Brown, David; Dominic Kennedy (17 September 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were lovers". The Times. Archived from the original on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- Badshah, Nadeem (30 January 2016). "How Corbyn revealed Abbott was his lover". The Times. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- "Diane Abbott goes to Ghana" Archived 22 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, GhanaWeb, 2 August 1999.
- "Black History Month: Home". Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
- Riddell, Mary (16 June 2010). "Diane Abbott: 'It's very lonely being a single mother'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- "Play It Again: Diane Abbott takes up the piano". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
External links
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Diane Abbott. |
![]() |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Diane Abbott |
- Diane Abbott MP. Official constituency website
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
- Portraits of Diane Abbott at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Diane Abbott: You Ask The Questions The Independent, February 2010
- Diane Abbott profile, New Statesman
- Diane Abbott on IMDb
- Interview with The Third Estate
- An Interview with Diane Abbott
- Appearances on C-SPAN
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Ernie Roberts |
Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington 1987–present |
Incumbent |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Gillian Merron |
Shadow Minister for Public Health 2010–2013 |
Succeeded by Luciana Berger |
Preceded by Mary Creagh |
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development 2015–2016 |
Succeeded by Kate Osamor |
Preceded by Heidi Alexander |
Shadow Secretary of State for Health 2016 |
Succeeded by Jon Ashworth |
Preceded by Andy Burnham |
Shadow Home Secretary 2016–2020 |
Succeeded by Nick Thomas-Symonds |