Diane Abbott let back into Labour Party a year after controversial suspension
Dianne Abbott has been sitting as an independent MP since her suspension last year (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Diane Abbott has been readmitted into the Labour Party over a year after she was suspended.
Parliament’s longest-serving female MP was kicked out of the party after an antisemitism row.
Labour MP Joani Reid has also been readmitted into the party.
She has been sitting as an independent MP since March after she said she was ‘voluntarily suspending herself’ after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
Joana Reid has rejoined the Labour ranks (Picture: UK Parliament/PA Wire)
A Labour spokesperson said in a statement that both women could sit again as Labour MPs after a ‘process conducted under Labour Party rules and ‘approved by the independent review board’.
The statement said Diane Abbott had also apologised following the end of the process.
Abbott was suspended from the Labour backbenches in July 2025 after she defended previous comments about racism.
In a letter to The Observer in 2023, Abbot argued that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives” and said that was different to the ‘prejudice’ experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers.
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP apologised for those comments at the time and was suspended for a year.
But in an interview with BBC Radio 4 last year, Abbott said she did not reget the row and defended her remarks.
Abbot was then suspended by Labour while they investigated.
Diane Abbott was a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
In a post on X, Abbott wrote: ‘Today, following a process conducted in line with party rules and approved by the independent review process I have been readmitted to the Labour party.”
She said she had been ‘issued with a formal warning for a tweet I previously posted’, in which she referred to the Israel Defense Forces as the ‘Jewish Defence Force’.
‘I used wording that conflates the actions of the state of Israel with the Jewish community. I am deeply sorry for any hurt caused by that conflation and apologise for any hurt caused by it.’
She added: ‘I have been and remain a lifelong anti-racist and remain deeply committed to opposing racism in all of its forms.’
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