Diane Abbott made ‘terrible mistake’ by saying Irish people did not suffer racism, says Labour grandee

John McDonnell, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party and a past campaigner against anti-Irish racism, says Labour MP Diane Abbott made a “terrible, terrible mistake” by suggesting that Irish and Jewish people and Travellers have not suffered racism.

Ms Abbott made the comments in a letter published on Sunday in the Observer newspaper, drawing a ferocious response, in particular from the Jewish community. She was suspended from the Labour parliamentary party despite apologising immediately and is now facing calls to stand down as an MP.

In an interview for Andrew Marr’s show on LBC radio, Mr McDonnell, who was Labour’s shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, said Ms Abbott knows she made a mistake.

“As someone who played a role in the campaigns against anti-Irish racism in the 1980s, I can completely understand why people are angry,” said Mr McDonnell, who is himself the descendant of Irish immigrants to Britain.

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“But all I can say is that I hope those now sitting in judgment of her have the generosity of spirit to acknowledge that for decades she has been at the forefront of campaigning against racism and has endured so much herself. Hopefully we can all learn from this,” he said.

Pat Reynolds, a founder of the community organisation, Irish in Britain Representation Group, which has campaigned in the past with Ms Abbott on racial issues, said people should “accept her apology”.

[ Diane Abbott said Irish, Jewish and Traveller people don’t suffer racism. What if you’re black and Irish? ]

Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Monday that Ms Abbott’s comments about Jewish people were “anti-Semitic”, although he did not refer to her comments about Irish people and Travellers. He refused to be drawn on when she might have the party whip restored. If it is not restored, she will be unable to stand again as a Labour candidate at the next election.

John Mann, a Labour member of the House of Lords who also advises the government on anti-Semitism, suggested that Ms Abbott should not stand as an MP in the election due next year.

She wrote to the Observer to criticise an article on racism by writer Tomiwa Owolade, who cited research on racism in Britain against people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The Evidence for Equality survey of 14,000 people in Britain found that people of a “white Irish” background were more likely to say they had experienced “racist insults, property damage or physical attacks”. More than 40 per cent of people of Irish heritage who were surveyed said they had experienced such incidents, more than any Asian community in Britain or “black Africans”.

Ms Abbott wrote that Irish, Jewish and Travellers had only ever experienced “prejudice” but not racism “all their lives” in the same way as black people. She compared their experiences to “white people with points of difference” such as redheads.

Following an immediate backlash online, she apologised on Sunday and accepted Irish people and the others she mentioned had experienced racism. She suggested her comments arose because an early draft of her letter was mistakenly sent to the Observer.