Diane Abbott

Leeds Pride ends sponsorship deal with Frank Hester’s company over alleged racist comments

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/leeds-pride-ends-sponsorship-deal-with-frank-hesters-company-over-alleged-racist-comments/

‘Through this decision, Leeds Pride asserts its position as an advocate for inclusivity, striving to ensure that Pride celebrations remain a platform for equality.’

Leeds Pride has terminated its sponsorship partnership with Leeds-based software company Phoenix Partnership (TPP), following the row over alleged racist comments the organisation’s founder and CEO Frank Hester said about Diane Abbott.

Organisers of Leeds Pride, which is due to take place on July 21, in celebration of LGBTQ+ culture, said they were ‘discontinuing’ the partnership, saying it was now ‘imperative it reassesses its association’ with Hester.

In a statement on social media, Leeds Pride said: “In light of recent developments involving alleged racist comments made by the TPP’s chief executive, it became imperative for Leeds Pride to reassess its association with the company. The decision to terminate the sponsorship agreement underscores the organisation’s dedication to upholding the values of diversity within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.

“Leeds Pride acknowledges the concerns voiced by members of the community and recognises the importance of taking steps to uphold its principles. Through this decision, Leeds Pride asserts its position as an advocate for inclusivity, striving to ensure that Pride celebrations remain a platform for equality.”

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Controversy consumed the businessman after the Guardian reported that Hester had allegedly made racist comments about MP Diane Abbott. The newspaper claimed he had said: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like… you just want to hate all black women because she’s there.

“And I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/leeds-pride-ends-sponsorship-deal-with-frank-hesters-company-over-alleged-racist-comments/

Continue ReadingLeeds Pride ends sponsorship deal with Frank Hester’s company over alleged racist comments

Journalist Owen Jones leaves Keir Starmer’s genocide-supporting ‘Labour’ party

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/21/labour-party-cancelling-membership-policies

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The assault on Gaza, the great crime of our age, adds moral indecency to the pile of dishonesty and vacuity. When Starmer declared Israel had the right to cut off energy and water to Palestinian civilians, he did so as a human rights lawyer who understands the Geneva conventions. After letting shadow cabinet ministers defend him, he claimed it “has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines”. We all have political red lines: mine is supporting what would amount to war crimes against innocent civilians, toddlers and newborn babies among them, then gaslighting the public over doing so.

Where is my gratitude for Starmer delivering a now inevitable landslide victory, you may ask? Well, he didn’t force Boris Johnson and his cronies to violate their own pandemic rules, or to trash the NHS, or oversee the worst squeeze in living standards in history. Nor did he propel to power Liz Truss, whose unhinged economic experiment crashed the economy – the moment when the electorate turned on this Tory party for good.

The absolute power a landslide victory will give Labour should scare you. When Starmer allies deployed antisemitic tropes – with one joking about a “run on silver shekels” when two Jewish businessmen missed out on peerages, and another calling a Jewish Tory donor a “puppet master” – an apology was deemed to be sufficient. When another racially abused a journalist and had a sexual harassment complaint upheld, they were reinstated after investigation.

Contrast this with Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black female MP, who was suspended after immediately apologising for an Observer letter in which she argued that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”. She has been left in limbo for 10 months and counting while the party investigates – only for Labour to use the racist abuse directed at her by a Tory donor for political capital, while still refusing to reinstate her.

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Continue ReadingJournalist Owen Jones leaves Keir Starmer’s genocide-supporting ‘Labour’ party

Thousands rally across Britain against ‘Tories’ ramping up of racism’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-rally-across-britain-against-tories-ramping-up-of-racism

People take part in an anti-racism march in central London orgainised by Stand Up To Racism and trade unions, March 16, 2024

THOUSANDS of anti-racism campaigners rallied across Britain at the weekend to reject the Tories’ “desperate attempt” to win votes by ramping up division and to show support for MP Diane Abbott.

The rallies took place just days after reports emerged that a major Tory donor had said that Britain’s longest-serving black MP “should be shot.”

And in the same week, the government ramped up its Islamophobic rhetoric, with Communities Secretary Michael Gove unveiling a new definition of extremism targeting Muslim groups.

Sabby Dhalu, co-convener of organisers Stand up to Racism, told the Morning Star: “We mobilised to reject the Tories’ ramping up of racism, Islamophobia, hatred, and division in a bid to gain votes at the general election.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-rally-across-britain-against-tories-ramping-up-of-racism

Continue ReadingThousands rally across Britain against ‘Tories’ ramping up of racism’

Conservatives, Extremism, and the Ghost of Enoch Powell

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/conservatives-extremism-and-the-ghost-of-enoch-powell/

Subjecting protestors to greater demonisation through the redefining of ‘extremism’ is just another chapter in the Tories’ painful history of hypocrisy.

If you paid much attention to Rishi Sunak’s speech outside No. 10 on March 1, you would think our country had been overrun by anarchists and fanatics. Extremist groups are ‘trying to tear us apart,’ said the PM, decrying a ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in Britain since October 7. Michael Gove has been at it too. Some pro-Palestinian events have ‘been organised by extremist organisations,’ claimed the Communities Secretary. These are the same protests incidentally that have been acknowledged by the Metropolitan Police as disciplined, orderly, and professionally-managed.

The anarchy-obsessed Conservative government now has Gove announcing a new definition of extremism. As part of Sunak’s drive to crack down on Islamist extremists and far-right groups, the revised definition identifies extremism as an ideology that “undermines the rights or freedoms of others.” It differs from the old definition in that there has been a shift in focus from action to ideology. The previous definition, which was introduced in 2011, said extremism was the “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and belief.”

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The same week that Gove announced his controversial new anti-extremism measures, a revelation hit the press that suggested the Tories’ biggest donor is an extremist himself, who upholds the most abhorrent views. Claims were made that Frank Hester, the healthcare technology business magnate who has donated £10m to the Tories in the past year, had said Diane Abbott made people “want to hate all black women” and “should be shot.”

The alleged comments mark a depressing new low for British politics. And the story gets worse. When asked whether the Tories should hand back the £10m donation, energy minister Graham Stuart told reporters that it would be wrong for a businessman to be ‘cancelled’ for his comments, and that the party should ‘welcome’ such donations.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/conservatives-extremism-and-the-ghost-of-enoch-powell/

Response to Rishi Sunak's extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024.
Response to Rishi Sunak’s extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024.
Continue ReadingConservatives, Extremism, and the Ghost of Enoch Powell

Politicians call on Labour to reinstate Diane Abbott at packed show of support in Hackney

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https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2024/03/16/politicians-labour-reinstate-diane-abbott-show-of-support-hackney/

Diane Abbott surrounded by supporters at last night’s rally. Photograph: Maya Sall

Hundreds of people gathered outside Hackney Town Hall last night for a rally in support of Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

On Monday, the Guardian revealed that the Conversative party’s largest donor, businessman Frank Hester, told colleagues that looking at Abbott makes you “want to hate all Black women” and that the MP “should be shot”.

At the demonstration, crowds chanted ‘We stand with Diane’ and heard speeches from people including independent Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn and a representative of Sistah Space, a domestic violence charity for Black women.

The speakers called for Labour to restore the whip to Abbott after it was removed in May last year.

Abbott has been MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, making her the first Black female MP and the longest-serving Black MP.

Addressing the crowd, she thanked local residents: “It is Hackney that work to get me elected in the ’80s, and it is Hackney people who have stood by me year after year, decade after decade.”

“What I want to say is this: this is not about me,” the MP continued. “This is about the level of racism that there is still in Britain. This is about the way that Black women are disrespected.”

Abbott talked about the institutional racism faced by her mother after she emigrated to Britain in the 1950s, and said that racism is still embedded in our society today.

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

Corbyn praised Abbott for her “steadfastness in coping with the personal stress that goes with the abuse”, and criticised the fact that she was unable to defend herself in parliament this week.

During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time, Abbott stood up 46 times in 35 minutes to ask for an opportunity to address the Commons.

It is tradition that if an MP is embroiled in a particular issue, or is in the news, the Speaker will call on them to address parliament. However, Abbott was never called.

In a post on X, Abbott wrote: “I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.”

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Cllr Adejare spoke passionately about Abbott’s legacy. “She paved the way for so many of us. Without her, it’s more likely than not that people like me would not be in politics.”

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Commenting on how quickly the rally was organised, she added: “It’s about making sure that when we look back in history, we know as a community that we stood up in solidarity against the oppression that’s Diane Abbott has experienced.”

https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2024/03/16/politicians-labour-reinstate-diane-abbott-show-of-support-hackney/

Continue ReadingPoliticians call on Labour to reinstate Diane Abbott at packed show of support in Hackney