Diane

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Diane Abbott was born on 27 September 1953 in Paddington to Jamaican parents. Her father was a welder and her mother a nurse; both left school at 14. She attended Harrow County School for Girls (a grammar school) and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied history, achieving a lower second-class degree (2:2). At Cambridge, one of her supervisors was Simon Schama. After university, Abbott became an administration trainee at the Home Office (1976–1978), then a Race Relations Officer at the National Council for Civil Liberties (1978–1980). She worked as a researcher and reporter at Thames Television (1980–1983), a researcher at TV-am (1983–1985), a press officer at the Greater London Council under Ken Livingstone (1985–1986), and Head of Press and Public Relations at Lambeth Council (1986–1987). In 2024, during the Undercover Policing Inquiry, the Metropolitan Police apologised for using undercover officers to spy on anti-racism campaigners, including Abbott, during the 1980s and 1990s. Many secret police reports on Abbott were uncovered by the inquiry. Abbott criticised these activities as being racist and unjustified.

In Their Own Story

At the 1987 general election, Abbott was elected to Parliament as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, winning with 48.7% of the vote and a majority of 7,678. She was the first black woman to become an MP. She gave birth to her son in October 1991, one year before the House of Commons introduced a crèche. At the 1992 general election, she was re-elected with an increased vote share of 57.8% and an increased majority of 10,727. She was again re-elected at the 1997 general election with an increased vote share of 65.2% and an increased majority of 15,627. At the 2001 general election, she was re-elected with a decreased vote share of 61% and a decreased majority of 13,651. At the 2005 general election, she was re-elected with a decreased vote share of 48.6% and a decreased majority of 7,427. Abbott's speech on civil liberties in the debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 won The Spectator magazine's 'Parliamentary Speech of the Year' award, and further recognition at the 2008 Human Rights awards. At the 2010 general election, she was re-elected with an increased vote share of 55% and an increased majority of 14,461. At the 2015 general election, she was re-elected with an increased vote share of 62.9% and an increased majority of 24,008. At the snap 2017 general election, she was re-elected with an increased vote share of 75.1% and an increased majority of 35,139. At the 2019 general election, she was re-elected with a decreased vote share of 70.3% and a decreased majority of 33,188. At the 2024 general election held on 4 July, Abbott was re-elected with a vote share of 60%. Abbott was given the honorific title Mother of the House as the longest continuously serving female MP, delivering her first speech in that role on 9 July 2024, when she congratulated new MPs and said: 'It is a great job and you will never regret coming here. ... When I was a new member in 1987, there were only 40 female members of Parliament. Today we have 264, and some of us are glad that we have lived to see this. And I can't speak about the increased numbers of female members of Parliament without referencing my predecessor Baroness Harriet Harman, who did so much to work to have an equal and diverse House.' Tributes were paid to Abbott by Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, as well as by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Reader's Guide

On 20 May 2010, Abbott announced her intention to stand in the Labour leadership contest. She secured the necessary 33 nominations, assisted by the withdrawal of John McDonnell and support from David Miliband and Jack Straw, among others. On 25 September 2010, Ed Miliband was announced as the new leader of the Labour Party, Abbott having been eliminated in the first round of voting after securing 7.24% of votes. Abbott was later appointed Shadow Minister for Public Health by Ed Miliband. Following her move onto the front bench, the Telegraph said on 27 September 2011 that Abbott had 'become one of Labour's best front bench performers'. On 8 October 2013, Abbott was sacked as Shadow Public Health Minister in a reshuffle by Labour leader Ed Miliband, and replaced by Luciana Berger. A close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Abbott was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate him as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015. Following Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Abbott was appointed to the post of Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. On 27 June 2016, following the resignations of many of Labour's shadow ministerial team in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Abbott was promoted to the position of Shadow Health Secretary. On 6 October 2016, following the resignation of Andy Burnham, Abbott was appointed Shadow Home Secretary. She was sworn of the Privy Council on 15 February 2017. On 2 May 2017, during that year's general election campaign, Labour's pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers was overshadowed by Abbott's inability to give accurate funding figures. In an interview on LBC Radio with Nick Ferrari, she repeatedly struggled to explain how the promise would be funded. In the interview, Abbott frequently paused, shuffled her papers and gave out the wrong figures. When asked about her performance, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, insisted he was not embarrassed by what many pundits called a 'car crash' interview. In a further interview conducted by ITV on 5 May 2017, as the 2017 local elections results were being announced, Abbott was again unable to give accurate figures on the Labour Party's performance suggesting that the party had a net loss of 50 seats. However, her figure was corrected by the interviewer who stated that Labour had in fact lost 125 seats.

Did You Know?

• Diane Abbott was the first black woman elected to the UK Parliament, in 1987.
• She became the longest-serving female MP in 2024, earning the title Mother of the House.
• At Cambridge, one of her history supervisors was Simon Schama.
• She gave birth to her son in October 1991, one year before the House of Commons introduced a crèche.
• Her speech on the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 won The Spectator's 'Parliamentary Speech of the Year' award.