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My friend Diane Abbott accepts she caused offence, but she deserved better

When the antisemitism row first erupted, lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie, a longtime friend of the Hackney MP, offered her some crucial advice – but, she admits, she thought things would pan out differently

Wednesday 29 May 2024 14:47 BST

‘When we met up a few weekends ago, one of the things Diane said to me was that her life has been characterised by abuse’ (Getty Images)

I’ve not always got on with Diane Abbott. When she was first elected in 1987, I was working on equalities and community development in Hackney, and even then, she was quite the formidable force. She would ring up constantly: Why haven’t you done this? What’s going on here? Everyone at the council feared her a little bit. She was somebody who wanted to get things done for her constituents.

Hackney is one of the most diverse boroughs in the country, with the second largest Jewish community in the entire country. Diane would always attend Jewish events she was invited to. She was close to local Jewish leader, the late Rabbi Pinter, and over the years has been constantly photographed with Rabbi Gluck.

Having witnessed her working directly with her local Jewish community for decades, I think it’s sad that this antisemitism row may be how she is remembered by history.

Now, that doesn’t mean that what she wrote in her letter to the Observer, for which the Labour whip was suspended – that Jewish people face prejudice but not racism – wasn’t offensive. I accept it was; Jewish friends tell me it was, and that it was antisemitic. She herself has accepted that. She withdrew the comment immediately and apologised and, as we all now know, went and did the antisemitism course – which was the right thing to do.

When I worked in equalities, if people were deemed to have said something untoward, you didn’t fire them, you said they needed to reflect and they needed training. Parliamentarians and senior politicians say all sorts of things.

When Rupa Huq made a statement that Kwazi Kwarteng “didn’t sound Black” – because, I suppose, Black people must all sound ghetto… – I was the one who supported her. She came to me for advice, and I was cross with her. But then I thought: well, it’s not the sum total of who she is, and she will learn from this.

Whereas Rupa came to me for advice, with Diane I went to her myself and offered it.

At the time, she was very shaken up and was actually reflecting on her future. There was never any question of her not doing the antisemitism training.

Sometimes, Diane doesn’t necessarily put things across in the right way. Because, remember, this wasn’t just about the Jewish community. She equally upset the Roma traveller community. They were offended by her comments, too – but they don’t appear to feature much in this story, which is something I’ve not quite understood.

My advice to her was just keep going. She did everything suggested and required of her. She apologised immediately, she asked for her Observer letter to be withdrawn, and then she went off to reflect. She took some time out. When she was asked to do the antisemitism training course, she did the course. What was asked of her, she did it. I advised she also kept working, which she did, being a great advocate for the Windrush generation, and to fight for Black and white working-class boys in her area.

And I actually thought she was going to be alright. I said, keep going. I thought her track record of service delivery, plus the support that the constituency party and local residents would stand her in good stead.

If you look at the service that Diane has given – and there’s obviously important stuff about her being the first Black woman MP, and so on, which makes her historically significant, but I think less important than her other achievements – I think it’s a shocking way for her to be treated.

Even if Labour had wanted her to stand down, there was a far better way they could have gone about it. At that point, if they had wanted to put a younger candidate more in line with their current ideological thinking, whatever that is, in that seat, Diane might well have accepted that. But the fact that just last week, Keir Starmer and other senior party officials were saying that the investigation into her was still ongoing, and then we find it was all done and dusted in December, five months ago, I think her treatment has been unconscionable.

When we met up a few weekends back, one of the things she said to me was that her life has been characterised by abuse. She was the only Black girl in her grammar school, and actually the only Black person in her class at Cambridge. She was the only Black person when she joined the Home Office, and she was the only Black person at Thames Television when she was a programme researcher.

All of her, life she has had to put up with the open bias, the side glances, as well as decades and decades of overt abuse. To think that Labour could not find a better way of dealing with somebody who has gone through all of that, yet still continue and win a majority of 33,000, in a constituency with the second largest Jewish community in the country? It is shameful.

I don’t think she would ever run in Hackney as an independent. Although she’s hugely popular, with a great track record, I don’t know that she’s got that same sort of machinery that, say, Jeremy Corbyn has around him. And we know that, traditionally, independents don’t win general elections, do they?

There have been rumours about a possible seat in the House of Lords. I’m in a WhatsApp group with 200 Black lawyers, and overwhelmingly they are all saying that, if a seat were offered, she should accept it.