Diane Abbott is the start of a very awkward year for Labour

Political claims to the moral high ground are treacherous territory – one that can swiftly give way to an ethical quagmire. And so it has proved, whose justified claim to have been subjected to racist remarks by Frank Hester, a prominent Conservative donor, have pivoted swiftly into a conundrum for Keir Starmer.

This is not the position of the Starmer leadership, which fully acknowledges anti-semitism as a fatal flaw in the Corbyn era. But it falls squarely into the awkward box of semantic issues. Starmer has also sought to neutralise a virulent divide about trans rights and their limits, by moving his own position from a sweeping designation of women as “adult females” , to a recourse to “common sense”.

Starmer’s non-committal reply, “I understand” and mutterings about process, make it clear that he does not intend to wipe the slate clean on her renegade early comments. In truth, these were more clumsy than malign – Abbott has the hard-left tendency

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