Image source, Jeff Overs/ BBCMPs Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have been let back into Labour, following suspensions from the party.
In a statement, a Labour spokesperson said both women would also be readmitted into the parliamentary party, meaning they can sit as Labour MPs once again.
Abbott, who is Parliament’s longest-serving female MP, was suspended in 2025 following an antisemitism row.
Reid has been sitting as an independent MP since March when she announced she was “voluntarily suspending herself” from the Labour Party after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
The party spokesperson said the decisions about party membership had been taken “independently of the leadership and political interference”.
Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, was initially suspended in 2023 over a letter to the Observer newspaper, external in which she said Irish, Jewish and Traveller people “undoubtedly experience prejudice” but “they are not all their lives subject to racism”.
She suggested the prejudice those groups experience is similar to that experienced by redheads.
She was readmitted to Labour shortly before the 2024 general election however, in a BBC interview just over a year ago she said she did not regret the incident and defended her original remarks.
This led to her second suspension, since then she has been sitting as an independent MP.
In a post on X,, external Abbott wrote: “Today, following a process conducted in line with party rules and approved by the independent review process I have been readmitted to the Labour party.”
She said she had been “issued with a formal warning for a tweet I previously posted”, in which she referred to the Israel Defense Forces as the ‘Jewish Defence Force’.
“I used wording that conflates the actions of the state of Israel with the Jewish community. I am deeply sorry for any hurt caused by that conflation and apologise for any hurt caused by it.”
She added: “I have been and remain a lifelong anti-racist and remain deeply committed to opposing racism in all of its forms.”
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