Labour accused of hypocrisy for suspending Diane Abbott on the same day as a far-right mob attacked police and anti-racists
MP Diane Abbott addressing the People’s Assembly Britain is Broken national demonstration in central London, November 5, 2022SUSPENDING Diane Abbott on the same day a far-right mob attacked police and anti-racists reveals Labour’s “rank hypocrisy,” Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) said yesterday.
The campaign group slammed the party for censuring Britain’s first black woman MP and leading anti-racist while its leader, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, stoked anti-immigrant sentiment with a speech implying Britain was becoming “an island of strangers.”
Anti-racists were surrounded by masked far-right thugs on Thursday night after staging a counter demonstration to an anti-immigration protest outside a hotel in Epping, Essex.
Riot police swarmed the streets after police vans were vandalised and officers assaulted by groups of men trying to reach the hotel.
SUTR co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “On the same evening as a violent racist riot targeting asylum-seekers erupted outside the Bell Hotel in Epping Forest, Labour decided to suspend Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP and a leading anti-racist.
“The government has lost its bearings on racism.”
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