Labour’s investigation into Diane Abbott’s comments about racism, which has lasted more than a year, will be completed by 4 June, Keir Starmer says.
It means Abbott’s future in the party will be decided on the same day as Labour’s deadline for its final candidate selections.
The party has faced questions over its new disciplinary process, given the time it has taken to investigate Abbott’s case compared with other high-profile cases.
Abbott had the whip immediately withdrawn last April after she wrote a letter to the Observer suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism “all their lives”. She apologised on Twitter, now X, the same day.
Starmer swiftly condemned her comments as antisemitic, saying that “we must never accept the argument that there’s some sort of hierarchy of racism”. Speaking the day after her suspension, the Labour leader added: “I will never accept that, the Labour party will never accept that, and that’s why we acted as swiftly as we did yesterday.”
While Starmer has described Abbott as a “trailblazer”, he has refused to say whether he wants her to be the party’s candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. “The days when the Labour leader rolls up his or her sleeves and gets involved in disciplinary cases are well and truly over,” he said, adding it was a matter for the national executive committee.
He told BBC Radio 4 Today on Friday: “The final decisions on candidates is coming up in a few days’ time, I think June 4, it may be a little earlier, a little later, I can’t quite remember.
“But within a relatively short period of time the final list of candidates will be decided, and that will be a matter for the Labour party’s national executive committee.”
Abbott said last month she would stay as an MP for “as long as I possibly can”. Dozens of veteran Labour figures across party factions have said they would like the Labour whip returned to Abbott.
News of the end of the investigation into Abbott comes as Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, announced he would be running as an independent candidate in his Islington North constituency.
Corbyn, who has held the seat for more than 40 years, was suspended from the party for remarks he made after the equalities watchdog report into antisemitism in Labour.
He said he would be defending policies that have not been adopted by Labour or the Conservatives, including rent controls and the abolition of the two-child benefits cap.
