At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ignored Abbott when she stood to ask a question. That’s despite the Conservative Party’s largest donor saying that when he sees “Diane Abbott on the TV” he wants to “hate all black women” and thinks “she should be shot”.
Instead at PMQs, Keir Starmer used Abbott as a shield for his lack of policies, shortfall in criticism of the government, and his support of genocide.
The sidelined Abbott disobeyed Starmer’s three line whip to vote for a ceasefire in Palestine in November. Abbott is an ally of Jeremy Corbyn and Starmer has suspended both her and Corbyn from the party.
Under fire – the MP in question tried to contribute to PMQs
On social media, people called out Hoyle:
Diane Abbott was trying to be called throughout #PMQs while others spoke about her.
Lindsay Hoyle fails to call her.
Wonder if more MPs will join the 95 saying ‘no confidence’ in the Speaker?https://t.co/5Sp13Iu2Dv
— Andrew Fisher (@FisherAndrew79) March 13, 2024
The speaker, who voted for the Iraq war as a Labour MP, has recently also received criticism for misusing the threat to MPs to ensure Labour isn’t exposed for its support of genocide in Palestine. The speaker is supposed to mediate the debate between MPs in parliament:
Why didn’t @CommonsSpeaker call @HackneyAbbott to speak?
So many were speaking about her but she doesn’t get to speak for herself?
Lindsay Hoyle must have seen her wanting to speak.
So wrong. #PMQs
— James Foster (@JamesEFoster) March 13, 2024
At PMQs, people felt it was disrespectful to ignore the Black woman MP in question:
During today’s #PMQs, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ignored Diane Abbott who repeatedly stood to ask a question. Britain’s first Black woman MP being disrespected in the House of Commons, as news emerged of the Tory Party’s biggest donor saying she should be shot, is most concerning. pic.twitter.com/kmbzobO1ik
— Nadine White. (@Nadine_Writes) March 13, 2024
Using Abbott as a shield at PMQs
Starmer used Abbott as fodder to distract from his lack of political disagreement with Conservative Rishi Sunak at PMQs. Instead of challenging him on major issues like the housing and climate, Starmer traded farcical blows with Sunak on “unfunded commitments”, both peddling the same economic myth that there is very limited government money.
In reality, the government can afford whatever it can achieve with its resources and manpower. That’s because the government sanctions the creation of money in our society. It does not really need to borrow.
So the “magic money tree” Starmer ridicules at PMQs actually exists, for the government can then use taxes to control any inflation. That’s because taxes make money more scarce.
That means the government could launch huge investment plans into housing and the climate. But given Starmer has gone back on nearly every pledge he made to become Labour leader, we cannot trust him to deliver on this.
Cover for the pro-genocide
Starmer also used Abbott as cover from his stance on the Gaza in motion genocide. He has refused to condemn the government continuing to license arms sales to Israel while the International Court of Justice (ICJ) investigates it for genocide.
Starmer even ignored Labour MP Zarah Sultana when she brought forth a bill to suspend arms sales to Israel. This would uphold the government’s own laws on the matter. So the Labour leader’s recent claim that he supports a ceasefire rings hollow to his actions.
The establishment wants to use Abbott’s ethnicity as a tool to distract from its own failings. That was made clear when speaker Hoyle ignored Abbott as she tried to speak on the death threat made against her. We must continue to call this out.
Featured image via The Telegraph – YouTube and Sky News – YouTube
