12 hours later the labour leadership have lifted her suspension. but is she banned from standing as a labour candidate in this election? plus the conservatives say if they win the election they will now protect pensioners from their own future tax rises. are they neglecting young voters? welcome to election newsnight. we are live each weekday night at half past ten on bbc 2 and bbc news with interviews and insight. with me throughout the programme tonight labour mp dawn butler and former conservative chancellor kwasi kwarteng who, like around 76 of his tory colleagues, is standing down. first, let s bring you up to date with today s election stories starting with our exclusive that we broke this morning that the labour investigation into diane abbott over her comments on racism was finished five months ago. and tonight, the labour leadership have lifted thier suspension of ms abbott and restored the whip. nick s here. bring us up to date? as you said earlier this evening si
But in all of it, was this feeling that it would never get better and i now know that thats not true. Hello. Here in france, round one is over. And after an Election Campaign of twists and turns, The Big Surprise was the lack of big surprise. But it is a huge turning point all the same. The established parties became marginalised, in third and fifth place and now the contest comes down to a showdown between nationalistic populism and globalist liberalism. That is the battle being fought across the west. France is now divided down the middle. The radical candidates, who want to overthrow the existing order le pen on the populist right, melenchon on the left, and six fringe candidates as well they got a total of 49. 6 per cent of the vote in other words, half. There is an enormous well of discontent out there. For now, Emmanuel Macron is the man to watch the best hope for a battered establishment of seeing off the radicals. But the twists continue in this campaign tonight, his opponent M
This is row that has been ongoing for months but has really, really been ongoing for the past few days, and this all goes back to a letter diane abbott wrote to the observer newspaper 1a months ago now. after that letter, she was accused of anti semitism and she said in the letter thatjewish people along with irish and traveller people didn t face racism all their lives and after that was published she apologised very quickly and she was suspended from the parliamentary labour party pending an investigation. now, if you are someone who has been suspended, if you are suspended when an election is happening, you can t run again as a labour candidate so we didn t hear anything about the investigation or the outcome of it for a long, long time. then, when the general election was called, we suddenly needed an answer, needed to know whether or not dianne abbott would be allowed to run. and several days ago, the bbc s newsnight programme reported that investigation concluded five months ago
Let s get more on this from our deputy political editor vicki young who s in the newsroom. first of all, can you remind us what actually took place here. this first of all, can you remind us what actually took place here. actually took place here. this has been quite actually took place here. this has been quite a actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, and actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, and has - actually took place here. this has - been quite a saga, and has dominated the first week of campaigning for labour. i think most people agree that the leadership hasn t handled it very well. as you said there, diane abbott under investigation for many months, over a year in fact, after she wrote a letter and in it she said thatjewish, irish and traveller people do not face racism all their lives. because of that, she was suspended from the parliamentary labour party. as i say, this investigat
Candidate. she was suspended from the party in 2023 following comments she made about racism but was allowed back in last month. there s been uncertainty about herfuture but on friday, the labour leader sir keir starmer said she was free to go forward as a labour candidate. let s get more on this from our deputy political editor vicki young, who s in the newsroom. what is the background to this? it has dominated the first week of campaigning for labour and has been a mass distraction for the leader keir starmer. diane abbott was originally suspended from the parliamentary labour party about 1k months ago, after she wrote a letter in which she said thatjewish, irish and traveller people do not face racism all of their lives. they are followed an internal party investigation that rumbled on. nobody really knew what was the status of that. it did turn out that it had been concluded in february, so everyone was wondering, would diane abbott be taken back into the