Starmer doubles down on witch hunt by suspending the whip from Diane Abbott
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the government’s first Civil Society Summit in London, which aims to bring together leaders from charities, expert groups, communities, and government, July 17, 2025LABOUR’S left today pledged to push back against Sir Keir Starmer’s purge of rebel MPs from the parliamentary party.
But the Labour leader doubled down on his witch hunt, suspending the whip from the Mother of the House, Parliament’s longest serving woman MP and the first black woman MP in history Diane Abbott — for the second time.
Ms Abbott said today that she had no regrets about comments on racism, which led to her being suspended by the party when in opposition.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Reflections: “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.”
Downing Street said it took the remarks “incredibly seriously,” and a Labour spokesperson later clarified that Ms Abbott had again been suspended from the party pending an investigation.
Ms Abbott was previously held in limbo for over a year during an “investigation” in which nobody contacted or interviewed her for months, only being allowed back in shortly before the general election.
Asked if she would condemn anti-semitic conduct, Abbott replied: “Well of course, and I do get a bit weary of people trying to pin the anti-semitic label on me because I’ve spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds and in particular fighting anti-semitism, partly because of the nature of my constituency [in Hackney North], which has a significant Jewish population.”
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dizzy: Article continues with a discussion of responses from the left to Starmer’s purge of rebel MPs.
There are claims that Abbott is making antisemitic remarks by e.g. Angela Rayner. That’s just stupid of course from Labour party Zionist genocide cheerleaders. How is it anti-semitic but not anti-traveller or anti-Irish for these Zionists? Isn’t that racism? It certainly looks like to me.
This is me dizzy saying this, Diane Abbott only said that black people experience racism differently to others. Isn’t that self-evidently true? The Labour party really suck up to genocidal Zionists, dont they? UK’s Labour party are racist, active participants in Israel’s racist genocide. Opposing Zionists committing genocide is opposing Zionists committing genocide, not anti-semitism.
ICC rejects Israel’s plea to cancel arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected Israel’s request to cancel arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and to suspend the ongoing investigation into crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, Anadolu reports.
In its ruling, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC said it had dismissed Israel’s dual request made on May 9, 2025: One seeking the withdrawal, cancellation, or invalidation of the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and another calling for the suspension of the prosecutor’s investigation into the situation in Palestine.
The court rejected Israel’s argument that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, reaffirming its previous decisions.
It added that the Appeals Chamber’s ruling of April 24, 2025, could not be interpreted as undermining the court’s jurisdiction.
READ: Israeli-linked lawyer told ICC chief prosecutor: Drop Gaza case or be ‘destroyed’
According to the decision, “suspension of the investigation is only applicable when a state challenges the admissibility of a case,” under Article 19(7) of the Rome Statute.
The judges noted that Israel had not filed such a challenge regarding admissibility.
The chamber also rejected Israel’s request to deny Palestine the opportunity to present its views, stating that the court already had sufficient information and did not require additional submissions.
The ICC ruled on Feb. 5, 2021, that Palestine is a State Party to the Rome Statute and that the court’s jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
The ICC Office of the Prosecutor officially opened an investigation into the situation in Palestine on March 3, 2021.
Israel challenged the court’s jurisdiction under Article 19(2) of the Rome Statute on Sept. 23, 2024.
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on Nov. 21, 2024, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On April 24, 2025, the ICC Appeals Chamber annulled an earlier procedural ruling that had dismissed Israel’s objection as premature, referring the matter back to the Pre-Trial Chamber for a substantive decision.
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