One of Westminster’s longest serving MPs, and the first ever black MP, Dianne Abbott has been barred from standing for the Labour Party ah the next General Election.

Ms Abbott, a former shadow Home Secretary, told the BBC she would be allowed to stand for Labour in her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat.

The party has yet to announce a replacement for the constituency which Ms Abbott won a commanding 33,000 majority in five years ago.

She had been suspended since April 2023 from the party due to comments made in a column she wrote in The Observer.

She claimed Irish, Jewish and traveller people “undoubtedly experience prejudice" which she said is “similar to racism".

She added: "It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

"But they are not all their lives subject to racism."

Ms Abbott withdrew and apologised for her remarks shortly after publication.

She was issued with a “formal warning” from Labour’s National Executive Committee and expected to undertake an “online, e-learning module”, which reportedly was a two-hour antisemitism awareness course.

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