Diane Abbott confirms she will run as Labour candidate in general election

Published

4 months ago

June 3, 2024

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Diane Abbott has said she “intends to run and win” as Labour’s candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington following speculation she may choose to stand down.

Ms Abbott, who was this week told she would be allowed to stand for Labour after months of uncertainty, also denied she had been offered a seat in the House of Lords in the event she chose to retire.

In a post on social media, Ms Abbott said: “I have never been offered a seat in the Lords, and would not accept one if offered.

“I am the adopted Labour candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. I intend to run and to win as Labour’s candidate.”

There have been questions over Ms Abbott’s future in the Labour Party ever since was suspended from the party last year for suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice rather than racism.

The comments, which she apologised for, sparked a long-running process which saw her sit as an Independent MP.

Ms Abbott, the UK’s first female black MP, finally had the party whip restored earlier this week, theoretically paving the way for her to stand for Labour at the election.

However, her future appeared in doubt as some papers were briefed that she had been barred from standing for the party again.

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As a backlash against Ms Abbott’s exclusion gained momentum, Sir Keir Starmer initially said “no decision” had been taken regarding her future – before later going on to confirm that she would be “free” to stand for the party in the seat she has held for nearly 40 years.

His decision meant Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, was set to approve Ms Abbott’s candidacy at a crunch meeting on Tuesday.

But there have been growing rumours that, having been given the green light to stand for Labour, Ms Abbott was considering quitting politics altogether.

It was then reported in the Sunday Times that the veteran leftwinger was among a number of former Labour MPs who had been offered peerages in exchange for standing down to make way for Sir Keir’s allies in plum seats – something Ms Abbott has now denied had happened.

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Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, also rejected the claim this morning, telling Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “No party can do that, it’s not the way the system works.”

She said there was a “whole process” for an independent committee to vet nominations to the Lords so it was not possible for Sir Keir, or any party leader, to promise anybody a seat.

The allegation came after Ms Abbott accused Sir Keir of “culling” Labour left-wingers after two potential candidates, Faiza Shaheen and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, were blocked from standing in Chingford and Woodford Green and Brighton Kemptown, respectively.

Former leader Jeremy Corbyn – who will now stand as an independent in the constituency of Islington North – also told Sky News Sir Keir was “clearly intervening” in a “purge” of left-wing candidates.

The Labour leader has denied blocking the left, saying his party had “fantastic candidates across the country” and he wanted the “highest quality candidates on the pitch for the task ahead”.

Politics

Bank of Canada just says no to retail CBDC in reshuffling of priorities

Published

9 hours ago

September 20, 2024

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Bank of Canada just says no to retail CBDC in reshuffling of priorities

Regulating and speeding up payments without a CBDC are more important to the Canadian central bank.

Politics

SEC approves options for BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF

Published

9 hours ago

September 20, 2024

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<div>SEC approves options for BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF</div>

The SEC notice seemed to be an industry first after the commission approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds on US exchanges in January.

Politics

Farage: It’s possible I could become PM

Published

10 hours ago

September 20, 2024

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Nigel Farage has spoken about his aspirations as Reform UK party leader and insists he could become prime minister.

He told Sky’s political correspondent Darren McCaffrey the prospect of taking over at Number 10 at some point “may not be probable, but it’s certainly possible”.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Reform UK annual conference in Birmingham, he also described his intention to change the party and make it more democratic.

“I don’t want it to be a one man party. Look, this is not a presidential system. If it was, I might think differently about it. But no, it’s not. We have to be far more broadly based,” he said.

He also accepted there were issues with how the party was perceived by some during the general election.

“We had a problem,” he admitted. “Those that wished us harm use the racist word. And we had candidates who genuinely were.”

Earlier the party leader and Clacton MP gave his keynote speech at the conference, explaining how they intend to win even more seats at the next general election.

He also called out the prime minister for accepting free gifts and mocked the candidates in the Tory leadership race.

But he turned to more serious points, too – promising that Reform UK will “be vetting candidates rigorously at all levels” in future.

Addressing crowds in Birmingham, Mr Farage said the party has not got “time” or “room” for “a few extremists to wreck the work of a party that now has 80,000 members”.

Farage says Reform UK needs to ‘grow up’

By Darren McCaffrey, political correspondent in Birmingham

Reform and Nigel Farage can hardly believe their success.

Perhaps unsurprising, given they received over four million votes and now have five MPs.

But today this is a party that claims it has bigger ambitions – that it’s fighting for power.

Having taken millions of votes from the Conservatives, the party thinks it can do so with Labour voters too.

Reform finished second in 98 constituencies, 89 of them are Labour seats.

But it is a big ask, not least of all because it is a party still dominated by its controversial leader and primarily by one majority issue – migration.

Nigel Farage says the party needs to grow up and professionalise if it has a chance of further success.

This is undoubtedly true but if Reform is going to carry on celebrating, they know it also has to broaden its policy appeal beyond the overwhelming concern of its members.

“The infant that Reform UK was has been growing up,” he said in his speech and pointed towards the success of the Liberal Democrats at the general election.

He told delegates his party has to “model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats” which secured 72 seats on a smaller popular vote share than Reform UK.

He said: “The Liberal Democrats put literature and leaflets through doors repeatedly in their target areas, and despite the fact they haven’t got any policies at all. In fact, the whole thing’s really rather vacuous, isn’t it? But they manage with a vote much lower than ours to win 72 seats in parliament.”

Reform won more than four million votes in July, and 14% of the vote share – more than the Lib Dems.