Diane Abbott is "free to stand" as a Labour candidate in the General Election, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader made the announcement on Friday just hours after he declined to join Angela Rayner and Anas Sarwar in backing the veteran left-winger’s Labour candidacy..
Starmer told reporters on Friday: “The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.”
He praised the Labour veteran as a “trailblazer”, saying: “Diane Abbott was elected in 1987, the first black woman MP.
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