Diane (Julie) ABBOTT Labour HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE
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Diane (Julie) ABBOTT Labour HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE NEWINGTON ‘87 Majority: 13,651 (46.1%) over Conservative 5-way; Description: HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE NEWINGTON Under-privileged northeast London working-class area with "the highest unemployment in the southeast" (DA); has a third of non- whites and only a quarter of owner-occupiers; only slightly gentrified, with one Tory ward; Position: Chairman, Parliamentary Group on Gun Crime '03-; on all-party Parliamentary Group on Street Prostitution '94-; Secretary, Campaign Group '03-, '92- 93; ex: on Foreign Affairs Select Committee '97-01, Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee '89-97; on Labour's NEC '94-97; in Ken Livingstone's Advisory Cabinet '00; Westminster Councillor '82-86; President, Anti-Racist Alliance '94; Chairman, Parliamentary Black Caucus '89-90; Vice Chairman, Black Sections Steering Committee '86- 89; Outlook: A former leader of the `ostracised Left' who remains one of dozen most penetrating burrs on the Blairite saddle, with 26 rebellions (llth) in the '97-01 Parliament and 48 (15th) rebellions in '01-02; her "indefensible" (DA) gesture in '03 in sending her son to a secondary school requiring #10,000 in annual fees undermined her status as the colour-and-class- conscious first black woman in the Commons and on Labour's NEC; she had already been squeezed off the NEC and two successive select committees, where she posed brutally direct probing questions; as "an elected member of the Labour NEC in the mid-'90s, I had a ringside seat as internal democracy of the party was dismantled" (DA); a highly-charged, highly- intelligent, sarcastic, pugnacious extrovert who can make "a serious and thoughtful contribution" (Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown); her pugnacity can be counter- productive: "I am sick and tired of being lectured at and insulted by Diane Abbott" (Labour MP Colin Pickthall); she has recently been a cheer-leader for Mayor Ken Livingstone, whom she once described as "unscrupulous and power-crazy"; was long the pair of Jonathan Aitken with whom she conversed for twenty minutes from his notorious Saudi-paid room in al-Fayed's Ritz Hotel, Paris; she is unswervingly loyal to the Eurosceptic, hard- Left Campaign Group; best at passionate, coherent oratory; tends to overstate and under-prepare, as when she described as "blonde" and "blue-eyed" a black nurse imported from Finland; "fearless in the face of opprobrium" (Claudia Fitzherbert, DAILY TELEGRAPH); semi-Trot (Socialist Action), but anti-Militant (because they are against blacks and women); an advocate of female equality, working-class control and better educational opportunities for school-age black males; the only black MP who has remained loyal to black sections; "like a politically active Eartha Kitt", "she may purr her way to the top; but with Leftwing claws like that, she is no pussy cat" (Baroness Falkender); slightly mellowing: "as I get older I realise that real progress is evolutionary and that it happens at a snail's pace"; was formerly highly ambitious, but as someone completely outside the Blair camp, she has lowered her sights to hoping "to be a good constituency MP and a good mother"; sponsored by RMT '02-; History: When a child, local racists forced her parents to leave Paddington for Harrow; she joined the Labour Party '71; she joined Anti-Apartheid, CND and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, which backed Tony Benn for Deputy Leadership Sep '81; was elected for her natal ward on Westminster Council May '82; as candidate for women's section of NEC, won 1,382,000 votes Sep '84; vigorously moved motion supporting black sections at annual conference, attacking Militant, Labour Rightwingers and Labour "racists" Oct '84; had conversations with Brent East ward officials about her standing against Ken Livingstone who was seeking to replace its MP, Reg Freeson Nov '84; co-authored, with Trotskyist Sharon 1 Copyright © Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. Diane (Julie) ABBOTT Labour HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE NEWINGTON ‘87 Atkin, a paper for a hard Left (LABOUR BRIEFING and Target Labour Government) conference in Birmingham, versions of which claimed: "a Labour Government which really tried to take power from the capitalist class would find itself blocked; a new apparatus would have to be formed...destroying the outlived state machinery"; "we are not interested in reforming the prevailing institutions - of the police, armed services, judiciary and monarchy - through which the ruling class keep us in `our' place; we are about dismantling them and replacing them with our own machinery of class rule" Jan-Feb '85; confronted Ken Livingstone over premature activities by his supporters in Brent East Feb '85; ran second to Livingstone in selection for Brent East Apr '85; was on all-woman short list for Westminster North May '85; on `Briefing' slate won 1,426,000 votes for NEC in women's section Sep '85; accused Kinnock of wanting to be Prime Minister at any cost Oct '85; backed absolute support for Scargill in the miners' strike Oct '85; moved motion calling for women's seats on NEC be elected by women alone Oct '85; was selected for safe Hackney, replacing reluctant, aged Ernest Roberts by 42 to 35, after having told selectors "to choose between a selection that looked to the past or one that looked to the future", overcoming resistance from Livingstoneites and LABOUR BRIEFING backers Dec '85; was endorsed by NEC Jan '86; won 654,000 votes in women's section of NEC Sep '86; at the hard-Left LABOUR HERALD conference meeting said Neil Kinnock was purging the Left to "make the party more acceptable to journalists"; warned: "if they came for Militant in the morning, they'll come for the rest of us in the afternoon" Sep '86; again lost conference battle for black sections Oct '86; predicted a "caucus" of black Labour MPs in the next Parliament Oct '86; was elected with 7,678 majority June '87; joined hard-Left Campaign Group June '87; was only one to turn up for first meeting of "black caucus" of Labour MPs June '87; visited Tamils detained on ferry Aug '87; with support of Campaign Group, CLPD and Labour Left Liaison, ran ninth in contest for seven constituency seats on Labour's NEC, with 234,000 votes Sep '87; in her belated Maiden she disparaged Government's Immigration Bill as "born in racism" Nov '87; backed Jeremy Corbyn's right to insist on Commons entry for a formerly imprisoned ex-IRA- sympathising researcher Nov '87; urged "racism awareness training" in Whitehall Dec '87; acclaimed ILEA for its contribution to Hackney's special educational needs Feb '88; belittled `Action for Cities' as a "PR initiative" Mar '88; said ILEA educated 45% of black children "if you attack education in London you are attacking the educational prospects of nearly half the black children at school" Mar '88; in the USA she described UK as "one of the most fundamentally racist nations on earth" Apr '88; backed Militant Dave Nellist against Speaker's suspension of him Apr '88; co-sponsored Tony Benn's Bill to ban foreign nuclear bases Apr '88; complained that the 38,000 in Hackney on housing benefit would mostly have their benefits cut under Housing Benefit (Changes) Bill Apr '88; accused Zola Budd of being a "walking, talking, running, public relations stunt for Apartheid" Apr '88; accused Commons attendants of maltreating black visitors May '88; said, "we have seen in London a Government bent on a spiteful, wholly ideological holy war against areas whose only fault is they voted Labour" July '88; won 258,000 votes for constituency section of NEC Oct '88; claimed that in almost 7 years she and Sharon Atkin had put the issue of "black self- organisation" on Labour's agenda; welcomed Larry Whitty's attempted compromise proposal on black sections but said she would wait to see if it was "a holding mechanism" or could deliver on "the principle of black self-organisation" Oct '88; voted against Defence Estimates Oct '88; voted against anti-IRA oath in Elected Authorities Bill, instead of abstaining as requested Dec '88; strongly urged Parliamentary oversight of security services Dec '88; voted against Prevention of Terrorism Bill Dec '88; warned that Thames Water was planning to cram 1,100 houses into Stoke Newington reservoir site Feb '89; opposed threat to Rushdie because "censorship is wrong and any calls for censorship by any fundamentalist religious leaders should be resisted" Feb '89; was named to Treasury Select Committee Mar '89; with Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz, 2 Copyright © Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. Diane (Julie) ABBOTT Labour HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE NEWINGTON ‘87 launched Black Parliamentary Caucus, imitating that in Washington Mar '89; urged a black Labour candidate be selected for Vauxhall by-election Apr '89; complained about deterioration of London Transport Apr '89; with 49 other CND MPs, reaffirmed their rejection of Neil Kinnock's abandonment of unilateralism May '89; speaking of her former jobs as press officer for Ken Livingstone and Ted Knight, said: "I know what it is like to work for unscrupulous and power- crazy politicians" June '89; received 196,000 votes for NEC Oct '89; complained of under-provision of health care in Hackney Nov '89; complained that "in the headlong pursuit of market values, Conservative Members are willing to throw away all that is good about British television" Dec '89; complained about the absence of aid to Vietnam Dec '89; disclosed confidential minutes of a secret seminar in the Carlton Club to privatise the NHS Dec '89; criticising Tory MPs for near-racism on Hongkong