Hackney locals support Diane Abbott in anti-racism rally

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

An anti-racism rally was held last Friday in support of independent MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott, who was recently targeted in racist comments made by Tory donor Frank Hester. 

The rally, which was organised by local black women in Ms Abbott’s local community, was also attended by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who deemed the treatment that she had been subjected to ‘utterly disgraceful’. 

The event was a response to several comments made by Hester, who was revealed last week to have remarked in a 2019 meeting: ‘(...) you see Diane Abbott on the TV and you’re just like, I hate, you just want to hate all black women just because she’s there, and I don’t hate black women at all, but I think she should be shot.’

Hester is the CEO of software company The Phoenix Partnership and is currently the Tory party’s biggest donor, having donated £15m over the past year. The Tory party is currently facing calls from both Labour and the Lib Dems to return the money, with SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accusing Sunak of ‘putting money before morals’.

Sunak has refused to return the money, stating that he is ‘pleased’ to have received the CEO’s support. Tory Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has said that his party would willingly receive more money from Hester, stating that ‘we don’t believe Mr Hester’s a racist’ because he had already issued an apology.

Hester has denied being a racist, and his company has issued a statement that ‘his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor her colour of skin.’

Ms Abbott was herself suspended as a Labour MP in 2023 after suggesting that Jewish, Traveller, and Irish people were not subject to racism ‘all their lives’. She is still seen by many of her supporters as an icon of Black female empowerment, and is currently awaiting a decision on whether or not to be reinstated.

At the protest, she expressed her gratitude towards the Hackney residents, who she says have ‘stood by me year after year, decade after decade.’

‘We have to make sure that for generations of young black people, they don’t have to suffer the racism that we had to suffer,’ she added.