This is an accepted version of this page Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987.

Born in Paddington to a British-Jamaican family, Abbott attended Harrow County School for Girls before reading History at Newnham College, Cambridge.

In 1983, she was active in the Labour Party Black Sections movement, alongside Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz, campaigning for greater African Caribbean and Asian political representation.

[26][27][28] At Goldsmiths' College, on 26 October 2012, a jubilee celebration was held to honour Abbott's 25 years in Parliament, with participants in a series of contributions including Herman Ouseley, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Kadija Sesay, Aminatta Forna, Shami Chakrabarti, SuAndi, Yvonne Brewster, Malika Booker, Zena Edwards and others.

[38][39][40] Abbott was given the symbolic title Mother of the House as the longest continuously serving female MP,[41] delivering her first speech in that role on 9 July 2024, when she congratulated new MPs and said: "It is a great job and you will never regret coming here.

And I can't speak about the increased numbers of female members of Parliament without referencing my predecessor Baroness Harriet Harman, who did so much to work to have an equal and diverse House.

"[42][43] Tributes were paid to Abbott by Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, as well as by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

[52] On 8 October 2013, Abbott was sacked as Shadow Public Health Minister in a reshuffle by Labour leader Ed Miliband,[53] and replaced by Luciana Berger.

She was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.

[59] On 27 June 2016, following the resignations of many of Labour's ministerial team in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Abbott was promoted to the position of Shadow Health Secretary.

[62] On 2 May 2017, during that year's general election campaign, Labour's pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers was overshadowed by Abbott's inability to give accurate funding figures.

[67] On 5 June 2017, during a Sky News interview, Abbott was unable to answer questions about the Harris report on how to protect London from terror attacks.

[67][70] The next day, Abbott withdrew at the last minute – citing illness – from a joint interview on Woman's Hour on 6 June, in which she had been due to face her Conservative frontbench opposite number Amber Rudd.

[76] She served as a temporary stand-in for the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, while First Secretary of State Dominic Raab stood in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

[77] Abbott was a supporter of Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, and defended him from bullying allegations made by David Leakey.

[92] On 11 March 2024, The Guardian alleged that businessman and Conservative Party donor Frank Hester had said in 2019 that Abbott made him "want to hate all black women" and that "she should be shot".

[93][96] On 13 March 2024, Abbott criticised the Speaker of the House of Commons (Sir Lindsay Hoyle) after he failed to call on her to speak during Prime Minister's Questions, which was dominated by the "race row" surrounding her.

[101][102] On 30 May, an open letter signed by many prominent Black British figures (including Lenny Henry, David Harewood, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Misan Harriman, Afua Hirsch, Jackie Kay, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Adrian Lester and Gary Younge) claimed that the Labour Party's indecisiveness about Abbott's future was an example "of the systemic racism highlighted in the Forde report on factionalism in the Labour party commissioned by Starmer himself".

[115] Abbott has a record of differing from some party policies, voting against the Iraq War,[116] opposing ID cards and campaigning against the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons.

[123]It was reported that the Labour Government at the time (in particular Harriet Harman[119][120]) asked MPs not to table these pro-abortion amendments (and at least until Third Reading) and then allegedly used parliamentary mechanisms in order to prevent a vote accordingly.

In March 2016, Abbott wrote: "over the past year alone, Britain has sold around £6bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, whose campaign in Yemen is targeting civilians – 191 such attacks have collectively been reported by the UN, HRW and Amnesty.

[137][138] Abbott wrote to Sajid Javid demanding that he publish the figures for people caught up in the Windrush scandal, and also tell how many Commonwealth citizens lost their jobs, became homeless and were prevented from using public services.

She wrote that "warm words are not enough", and maintained that transparency was needed to give the Windrush generation confidence ministers have come to grips with what is ... clearly a systemic problem at the Home Office.

She co-wrote a piece in The Guardian with Father of the House Conservative MP Edward Leigh opposing the assisted suicide bill.

[156] Abbott later apologised for "any offence caused", stating that she had not intended to "make generalisations about white people"; she said in an interview with Andrew Neil that her tweet was referring to the history of the British Empire.

"[158] Members of the public lodged complaints, but the Metropolitan Police stated that no investigation would be launched, and no charges would be brought against her, saying she "did not commit a criminal offence.

"[161] On 15 March 2024, Abbott strongly denied unattributed briefings in The Independent newspaper that stated the Labour whip would have been restored if she had agreed to attend an antisemitism course.

[168] Following the shooting of Sasha Johnson on 23 May 2021, Abbott tweeted: Black activist #SashaJohnson in hospital in critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head.

[173] A few days later, in an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Abbott proposed a parliamentary inquiry into the sexist and racist abuse of MPs in social media and the way Twitter and Facebook investigate cases that arise.

[188] On 12 March 2024, after allegations that she had been targeted by racist remarks from a Conservative Party donor, Abbott issued a statement saying that "as a single woman" she felt "vulnerable" in her constituency.