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54
Interview
PowerList 2010
No right turn
she never had a second home, claims no expenses she’s not
supposed to and has retained her integrity by staying true to her
left-wing roots. Hannah Pool finds out what makes Diane Abbott tick
don’t have a second home, but did you see my moat when you on a school trip to Cambridge she told her history teacher she
i
came in?” jokes Diane Abbott, who lives in a tasteful townhouse wanted to do the entrance exam to the prestigious university and
in the middle of her Hackney constituency. the teacher had replied: “i don’t think you’re up to it.”
to the left of New Labour, and proud of it, Abbott has “oh but i do, and that’s what matters,” was Abbott’s riposte and
earned a reputation for being unafraid of saying what she thinks, a few years later she was to be proved correct.
although efforts by the press and even her own party to paint her when she left Cambridge, Abbott was fast-tracked into the civil
as a left-wing eccentric have failed, largely in light of her regular service and joined the Home office: “i told them i was interested
appearances on the BBC’s this week, a programme in which the MP in race so they put me in the prison department,” she says. From
for Hackney North & stoke Newington has been able to showcase there she went to the National Council for Civil Liberties (which
her not inconsiderable wit and political nous. later became Liberty). “i thought i was going to some left-wing
“the BBC show has helped me to reach a wider audience and nirvana, but it left me with a lasting suspicion of bleeding-heart
people have been able to judge for themselves whether i’m sane white liberals.”
or not,” she says. “i can be genuinely independent and i have to counter this, Abbott, who had since joined the Labour
a reasonably high profile in the media, so i can be reasonably party, got more involved in black politics, joining black women’s
influential.” organisations and the stop sUs Laws campaign. it was here she met
Her unwillingness to drift towards the right, or toe the party Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng, and Keith Vaz – who, along with her,
line, is precisely what makes her such an interesting and respected would later become the country’s first four minority ethnic MPs.
politician. while those around her have jumped on issues such the seeds of her political career were sown. “we were going
‘i told the Home office i was interested in race and
they put me in the prison department’
as race, education and civil liberties as and when the bandwagon to talk to MPs representing areas like Brixton or Notting Hill, and
drove by, Abbott has continually championed such causes – a more they were white, and we were trying to talk to them about police
tactical politician may have quietly let them slip down their agenda. harassment and they didn’t understand what we were talking about.
Abbott says she became interested in politics at an early age. so we set up an organisation called the Black sections Campaign.
she was born to working-class Jamaican-immigrant parents in we had three demands: we wanted more black MPs, more black
1953 (her parents had come to Britain a few years previously). counsellors and all-black shortlists. we went to [the Labour Party]
on passing her 11-plus, she went to Harrow Grammar school for conference, we made speeches, and we took a very systematic
Girls (Michael Portillo her co-host on this week, was at the boys’ approach to it. we came together and decided who would run
school at the same time, and this may explain their perhaps baffling where. so Bernie ran in tottenham, Paul ran in Brent, Keith ran
friendship). “i was the only black girl in the school, they thought i in Leicester, i ran in Hackney, others ran elsewhere. we did it as
was very troublesome, and they were probably right,” Abbott says. a collective thing, which helped us in what were very adverse
“it was my first experience of being the only black person in circumstances,” Abbott says.
an institution, so it stood me in good stead. i had some teachers she has not had an easy ride with the press over the years,
who were quite negative, but i also had some very inspirational perhaps most notably when she chose to send her son, James,
teachers.” to a £10,000 per year private school, rather than to the local
in her second english lesson she was accused of cheating comprehensive, a decision described at the time as “indefensible”.
because the teacher couldn’t believe a black student could write so she’d rather not speak about her son, as “he hates it”, but she does
well. “For the whole year with that teacher, i was very careful not to tell me, proudly, that he achieved 11 A’s at GCse. James is currently
write up to the standard i knew i could, and not to use long words, at sixth form in Ghana. “in a society where he can see black men
because i didn’t want that humiliation again. i understand why doing things other than being sportsmen of gang members – that’s
some black children under achieve, because when you’re young, the empowering thing. it’s been amazing for him,” she says.
if people don’t believe in you it’s much easier to go along with it,” Presumably this means she still has little faith in Britain’s
Abbott says. education system when it comes to black children? “there are black
Dianne PowerList10_IS02_P056-057.indd 1 07/09/2009 14:32
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