Diane Abbott says she will stand for Labour after candidacy row | FT (£)

American here (who’s a fanatical lover of HIGNFY and British politics); lemme take a crack at it. Please correct me where I misspeak, Brits!

Diane Abbott has had to deal with scandals for much of her whole time in power, many of which have come from her saying dumb shit, like Mao did more good than harm. Now, as the first Black MP, one could argue that these were outsized scandals, blown up by the British rags, but still.

The most recent scandal came when she lost the Labour whip job for saying Jews experience prejudice, not racism. That scandal ran up until the general election was called last week, where it was unclear if she’d be selected to run again in her seat. She adamantly wanted to (and seems like she will stand), and party leadership was very indirect about if they’d let her, despite the whip being restored.

It looks like she’ll be running again now, but it’s just been so messy on the Labour side, and really hasn’t made Keir or his party leadership look great. In an election where Rishi and the Tory’s are self-destructing, it should be an easy Labour win if they don’t keep fighting with themselves.

Very short summary:

She said something foolish and antisemitic, and was suspended from the party. She then was reinstated to the party very late in the day, but there were rumours she wouldn't be allowed to run as a Labour candidate again, then rumours that she would run, but against Labour, but now she say she's back and she's running for Labour.

Slightly more detailed summary:

Diane Abbott published a letter which claimed that Jews didn't experience real racism because they mostly pass as white. People were very annoyed about this because it's obviously not true, but also because of Labour recently having been found to be institutionally antisemitic during the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn (a close political ally of Diane Abbott). She was quickly suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), pending a full investigation. She almost immediately apologised, retracted what she said in the letter and agreed to attend some sort of anti- antisemitism course.

Recently, it was rumoured (I don't think actually confirmed) that the investigation had finished months ago and recommended no further sanction, but the findings weren't made public or even given to Abbott. She was allowed back in to the PLP at the beginning of the general election campaign, but there was another rumour that she wasn't going to be allowed to run in the election, which the party refused to confirm or deny, saying it was an internal matter for the National Executive Committee. Various senior party figures then said they thought she should be allowed to run, including, eventually, Keir Starmer.

There were then further rumours that Abbott was so upset by the debacle that she might run against Labour. But, as the headline says, she's now decided to stand for Labour.

Yeah, I agree. I understand why he wants to push out MPs who aren't loyal to him, because the more loyalists you have, the easier it is to get things done. But the optics of this one were terrible. Still, she's running, now, and she'll almost certainly hold the seat for Labour.