Diane Abbott should be allowed to stand for Labour, says Angela Rayner | Labour

28 comments

1. Considering the way Diane Abbott has acted over this, I wonder why she’d want to stand for Labour now. The way she ran straight to a journo with what appears to be false information is strange. She seems to be more concerned about herself than Labour and the country as a whole.

2. Wow as a centrist this is sad but also hilarious – Labour are literally imploding in real time. Maybe for all his faults Rishi actually was smart calling the election and then waiting for Labour to tear itself apart – seems like Starmer doesn’t have any control over his party (which then begs the question would he have control of government as PM).

   Edit: to save me having to respond to people individually, it isn’t just me who thinks this – see the latest polling below. I’m no fan of Rishi but anyone who thinks Labour will walk this might be in for a painful shock next month:

   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13469111/amp/Tories-tightened-gap-Labour-Rishi-Sunak-General-Election-new-policies-Keir-Starmer-poll.html

3. I feel Kier is unfortunately reaping what he’s sown here, if he’d delt with this crap earlier, with less miscommunication, Diane Abbott could well (and should imo,) be retired by now and a non problem, but by leaving it to the absolute last minute to tell her if she’s still suspended or not and then evidently not making it clear enough or not that she could run again he’s essentially just allowed her to have a platform she otherwise wouldn’t have.

4. Oh Labour, please stop trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

5. I support Labour but I struggle to support someone who can’t wear matching shoes.

6. I don’t know why anyone would question Diane Abbott or her logic, it’s not like she is prone to making mistakes…

7. She should have been allowed to stand. Purging the left and imposing your candidates isn’t correct.

   Parliament is supposed to hold the government to account. The PM isn’t supposed to pick his parliament.

8. She should have been kicked out last election, better late than never

9. Great, now it’s on all parties to make sure that we move on as quickly as possible.

   Step one- Abbott sends out a message saying she’s relieved this has been resolved and is happy to stand for Labour.

   Step two- Starmer says roughly the same, happy that she has taken her appropriate training and we are moving on to bigger issues for the whole country.

   Step three- nobody says anything other than the above, and we forget this speedbump.

   Edit: if either party does anything other than the above I will be genuinely exasperated: one or both of them is just not focused on the best for the whole country, or even for that constituency.

10. Love how the pro-tory papers are flooding these kinds of stories now. The BBC is absolutely full of it today.

11. Funny because she was supposed to be retiring. Turns out that was bollocks

12. Angela Rayner should not be allowed to stand for Labour, says Diane Abbot. (Is the kind of thing she might say accidentally on a news interview)

13. Abbott is a waste of an MP for Starmer. The seat is 70% labour whomever stands and why would he want to have an MP who’s going to vote against him on any meaningful policy. She’s shown herself to be a hypocritical, divisive, anti-west, authoritarian apologist who the country and party would be better off without.

    She is also 71 yrs old so well past retirement age.

14. It has been **[0]** days since Labour self-sabotaged.

15. The thing about Abbott is that she’s clearly a feelings first type who is, let’s face it, bad with numbers and statistics. On a boots on ground, press the flesh, connecting with her constituency level, she’s really quite good.

    When it comes to conducting herself in a world of 24/7 news cycles and media polish, she’s behind the times. Plus she’s made numberous gaffes and seems to hold some really dodgy opinions about race.

16. Dianne Abbot should fuck off. She’s toxic to half of Labour voters and toxic to 100% of everyone else. It’s like shes a fucking tory sabateur!

17. Diane Abbott would be exactly what rishi sunak needs. She’s extremely unpopular. Even Corbyn realised this, that’s why he removed her from her position before the election which he lost.

18. I don’t think she deserves the abuse she gets, but at the same time I wish she’d…. Go away.

19. Are we allowed to talk about Diane Abbot’s low level of intelligence without the default accusations of racism yet?

    Or, are we still waiting for the hurty-wurty feelings of infantile adults to settle so we can have a grown up discussion?

20. It’s pretty clear that the decision on whether or not Abbott will run has been her own to make since this farce began. But Diane is so determined to get a win, to make it look like she left Starmer with no choice rather than the choice always being her own, that she’s now making Starmer look like he has no control over his own party. It would be a terrible way to support your leader going into a general election, but for Diane, it was never about Starmer or the Labour Party. It was and continues to be about herself.

21. Why the fucking hysteria over Abbott the Hutt? Does this entire election depend on her standing for labour or something?

    Christ Starmer grow some balls, tell her to fuck off, ignore the Daily Mail for 24hrs and it’s all forgotten about.

    This person is a divisive piece of shit, can the world just stop giving them an audience every single day.

22. If you want to kill labours chance of getting the keys to number 10, go for it. Bring Corbyn back too and see support drop straight off a cliff.

23. Starmer is trying to move to the centre because that’s the only way labour can win elections. Yet his own crew are trying to sabotage.

    *I am not a Labour voter

24. O my fucking God can you please stop clutching defeat from the jaws of victory

    **for five minutes**

25. Hot take: she’s paid by Russia to stir shit so labour has no chance of winning. She is not doing labour any favours at all and would rather burn the house down than just shut her fucking stupid mouth. She’s going to ruin this. Mark my words, labour will lose and it will be related to her stirring shit

26. Abbott is the single biggest vote winner for the tories since Corbyn. She shouldn’t be allowed to stand, she should be removed from the party entirely.

27. This is brilliant. Labour, nearing a general election, are finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot again.

28. Maybe she is trying to give Jeremy Corbin leeway by derailing Labour?
    I may be wrong but understanding geriatric hippies isn’t my forte.