Even Diane Abbott's staunchest defenders would admit that she attracted more than her fair share of negative headlines in recent years.
Her remarks, which struck many as anti-Semitic, caused outrage. Despite issuing a swift apology, Abbott – who had been a thorn in Sir Keir Starmer's side because of her unabashed hard-Left views and loyalty to ousted former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who happens to be her ex-boyfriend – was swiftly suspended from the party.And yet in the past 24 hours, Starmer – in the first serious gaffe of his so-far lacklustre election campaign – has made Abbott an unlikely martyr.
Her pitiless defenestration has triggered a backlash against Starmer from both the Left and Right of his party. Even his traditional allies were appalled. John McTernan, who was Tony Blair's political secretary, said the briefings against Abbott – first revealed in The Times – were 'designed to humiliate her... and it's shameful'.
The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington subsequently took a two-hour online 'anti-Semitism awareness training course'.
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