A trailblazing hero to many, Diane Abbott is also an insurmountable problem for Labour

Angela Rayner and Ed Balls have sided with Corbynite footsoldiers demanding the longtime Hackney MP have the party whip restored. But, says John Rentoul, she remains a vivid reminder of what Keir Starmer is keen to persuade voters that Labour is not any more

Diane Abbott at a 2019 rally with Labour’s then shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer (PA)

Diane Abbott is a trailblazer. She is a hero of the anti-racist struggle. So said Apsana Begum, the Labour MP, on Newsnight, and she is not wrong. Abbott stood for something and fought for it, and it is partly because of her that the British parliament is more diverse than it has ever been.

But that does not mean that Labour’s disciplinary procedures should be overridden.

That she has been the victim of Tory donor Frank Hester’s alleged racism should have no bearing on how Labour deals with her own failings. Indeed, she has been the victim of racism and sexism all her life, which she has borne with dignity and courage, but that is no mitigation for the extraordinary letter she wrote to The Observerlast year, for which she was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party. That was the letter in which she said that Jews experienced “prejudice”, but not “racism”. She “withdrew” it, “disassociated” herself from it and apologised.