Labour Party MP Diane Abbott made history in 1987 as the first Black female MP in Britain. Now the British born daughter of Jamaican immigrants and Cambridge University graduate is trying to become the leader of the Labour Party. “I am running for the leadership because I am the best candidate for the job,” Diane Abbott declared in a interview posted on The Third Estate blog. “The most immediate task is to rebuild and revitalise the party and no other candidate has my experience of the party.”
The current leadership race was triggered after Gordon Brown resigned as the British Prime Minister and Labour party leader on May 10.
Ten days later Abbott announced she was running.
"I am not just another man in a suit. There’s not a lot of difference between the candidates so far. I am standing because I represent "real choice," not a return to the Blair/Brown politics of the past 13 years. I voted against the Iraq war which is the single biggest source of disillusionment with Labour. And I do not believe that we lost the election because of immigration, as some of my rivals seem to be suggesting. I am a truly independent candidate who will create real change out of the ashes of New Labour, and reclaim the true identity of the Labour Party."
If Abbott becomes the leader of the party, and Labour wins the 2015 Parliamentary elections, she would become the second female and first African descended Prime Minister in British history.
She's been during her time as the MP for the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency a strong civil liberties, equal rights and education advocate.
The Labour Party leadership vote started on September 1 and will conclude on September 22. Labour MPs, Members of the European Parliament, individual party members, and individual members of trade unions and other affiliated groups are eligible to vote with the results will be announced at the September 25 Labour Party conference in Manchester.
The question remains is after that vote, will Diane Abbott be one step closer to making British history?
At any rate, Diane Abbott definitely bears watching by we children of the African diaspora and other interested parties.
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