Racist slurs against Diane Abbott are a stain on Sunak’s Conservatives – and Starmer’s Labour

Editorial: As Britain’s first Black female MP decries both main parties for a reluctance to call out racism within their ranks, Rishi Sunak could use the disgraceful Tory donor row to restore some of the ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ he insisted would be the trademarks of his administration. He could do worse than offer to reimburse the controversial £10m donation himself

(Dave Brown)

Of all the players in the current political drama, the one we have really been waiting to hear from is the victim of the egregious abuse thrown in her direction by a super-rich Tory donor, Frank Hester. Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black female MP, now breaks her silence in The Independent, and she has spoken out with a quiet, cold anger about her treatment – in fact, by the leaderships of both main parties.

Suspended from Labour over allegations of antisemitism in a letter she wrote to a newspaper last year, for which she has apologised, she finds that Sir Keir Starmer was initially more interested in scoring points about political funding than in the “textbook” racism and sexism directed at her.

As she puts it: "The position of the current leadership of the Labour Party is disappointing… equally reluctant at the outset to call out either racism or sexism. Instead, the entire focus was on the demand that the Tories give Hester back his money, which is surely not the primary point in this case.”