Diane Abbott hits out at Speaker Lindsay Hoyle after not being called to speak at PMQs during racism debate

Diane Abbott has criticised Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for not calling on her to speak at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions during a debate on racism.

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said she was “surprised” not to be called to speak, with the debate “mostly about racism and me”.

“Stood over 40 times. Speaker claims he ran out of time,” she said. “Truth is he can make PMQs go on as long as he likes.”

It is the second time the MP, who was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party last year and sits as an independent in the Commons, has hit out at the Speaker over the incident.

“I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy,” she said afterwards.

It comes after a row which was sparked following the emergence of racist comments that Tory donor Frank Hester reportedly made, that the MP made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

At a rally in Hackney, east London, Ms Abbott was greeted with cheers and chants of “I stand with Diane” after the Tory donor’s reported offensive remarks.

The MP said the people of Hackney “stood by her – year after year, decade after decade”.

In the wake of the race row, she said: “This is not about me, this is about the level of racism that is still in Britain. This is about the way that black women are disrespected.”

Mr Hester, who is the chief executive of The Phoenix Partnership, said he was “deeply sorry” for the remarks, but insisted they had “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

The Conservatives have faced pressure to return the money Mr Hester has donated to the party in the wake of the row, which is understood to total £15m since 2019.

After ministers and Downing Street refused to describe Mr Hester’s comments as racist for most of Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman finally labelled them as such in the evening.

Ms Abbott had the Labour whip removed from her last year following comments she made in the Observer in which she said Jewish, Irish and Traveller people do not face “racism” but instead suffer prejudice similar to “redheads” – something for which she later apologised.

On Friday night, The Independent reported Ms Abbott had not had the whip restored because she refused to take part in antisemitism training – a claim she rejected as a “blatantly shoddy piece of journalism”.