Today was supposed to be Labour's big NHS day. You know, the one where party of the health service seeks office in order to once again save the health service. And with waiting lists languishing at a near-record 7.54 million, they have a case to make. Unfortunately for the party, not many people will get to hear it.
Instead, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting was forced to spend his media round discussing Diane Abbott, the long-serving MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Abbott had the whip withdrawn in April 2023 after writing a letter to the Observer newspaper in which she suggested that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism “all their lives” as black people were.
Abbott apologised “wholly and unreservedly” for the comments, but was suspended pending an independent investigation commissioned by Labour. BBC Newsnight subsequently reported that Labour’s National Executive Committee had written to Abbott last December to say it had concluded an inquiry into her comments. Then on Tuesday, she had the whip restored.
At the same time, a story was seemingly leaked to The Times that Abbott would still be barred from standing as a candidate at the election on 4 July. Except today, Keir Starmer said this was not the case and that no decision had yet been taken.
I'll level with you, my capacity to binge-watch internal Labour battles isn't what it used to be. But clearly, what the leadership was hoping for was a conclusion in which Abbott, a veteran left-winger and Britain's first black female MP, could retire from politics with the Labour whip restored, and go quietly while a loyal replacement was lined up. This doesn't appear to be going to plan.
These events not only rob Labour of a positive policy story it wants to tell (cutting NHS waiting lists), it also highlights a wider problem. The party has made a big play of wanting to 'stop the chaos', a line that sounds both plausible and focus-grouped to an inch of its life. There's one problem, however. Have you met the Labour Party?
Its policy splits may be on a different level to that of the Conservatives, while the leader's team have put great effort into ensuring candidates selected for the next election are Starmer-ish in their outlooks. But much of what underpins Labour unity these days is a shared determination to win power, and polling which suggests that is the likeliest outcome. What happens when the party tires of the discipline of power or that poll lead evaporates in office?
The Abbott story is for now a distraction. And given the Conservatives' uneven start to the campaign, perhaps it won't matter. But it contains a warning for the future. Because a Starmer government will encounter plenty of internal crises and must be better prepared to manage them – whether or not Abbott returns as a Labour MP.
