6 days ago
The BBC has questions to answer about the Diane Abbott affair
Why is it that whenever Diana Abbott is accused of anti-Semitism, it's often as a result of an interview she's given to the BBC?
The veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was once again suspended by the Labour Party this week after saying she did not regret writing a 118 word letter to The Observer in 2023 which argued that 'Irish, Jewish and Traveller people (and redheads)… undoubtedly experience prejudice… but they are not all their lives subject to racism '.
At the time, she withdrew the remarks and apologised and was suspended before being reinstated at the last minute to stand as Labour's candidate in last year's general election.
Now she's changed her tune, telling Radio 4's Reflections programme: 'Clearly there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism,' suggesting that a black person's skin colour is visibly notable, whereas being Jewish is not.
First question: this BBC interview was pre-recorded in May – so why is the broadcaster only now asking whether her remarks are inflammatory? Did it not realise that at the time, too busy, perhaps, broadcasting 'inaccurate' Gaza documentaries and preparing Glastonbury coverage that would see Bob Vylan chant: 'Death, death to the IDF?'
Secondly, why didn't the interviewer, James Naughtie, challenge Abbott with her own words, on the BBC's Question Time on April 26, 2018, when she suggested that the Haredi Jews in her constituency were a target for anti-Semitism 'because of the costumes they wear'?
She cannot have it both ways. She cannot say that Jews don't suffer the same racism as black people because they're white (even though a lot of Jews have dark skin) and then claim that they are the victims of racism because they are so obviously Jewish.
I wonder if she would refer to Muslims who wear traditional clothing – or African or Caribbean people – as wearing 'costumes' and therefore open to abuse?
Abbott claims it is 'obvious this Labour leadership wants me out'. On the basis of this evidence, who can blame them?
