Diane Julie Abbott is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A socialist member of the Labour Party, she served in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020. Abbott is the first black woman elected to Parliament, and the longest-serving black MP in the House of Commons.
Born in Paddington, London W2, to a British Jamaican family, Abbott attended Harrow County Grammar School before going up to read History at Newnham College, Cambridge. After joining the Civil Service, she worked as a reporter for Thames Television and TV-am before becoming a press officer for the Greater London Council. Joining Labour, she was elected as a Councillor on Westminster City Council in 1982 and then as an MP in 1987, being returned in every general election since for 35 years.
She was a member of the Labour Party Black Sections, the same as fellow MPs Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz, who were also elected in 1987. Critical of Tony Blair's New Labour project which pushed the party to the centre during the 1990s, in the House of Commons Abbott voted against several Blairite policies, including the launching of the Iraq War and the proposed introduction of ID cards. She stood for the Labour Party leadership on a left-wing platform in 2010, losing to Ed Miliband, who appointed her Shadow Minister for Public Health in the Official Opposition frontbench.
A supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's bid to become Labour Leader in 2015, Abbott became Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, then Shadow Health Secretary, and eventually Shadow Home Secretary. As a key Corbyn ally, she supported his leftward push of the Labour Party. She unsuccessfully attempted to be the Labour candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election, and backed the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to retain UK membership of the European Union. After the 2019 general election, Abbott left the Shadow Cabinet. She remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.
