Labour's grand mishandling of the Diane Abbott row

<p>Today Labour announced some bold plans for the NHS, stating that they would clear the Tory backlog in their first time. However this has been completely overshadowed by the mishandling of Diane Abbott's position in the party.</p><br /><p>This morning, Abbott, who has served as Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since being elected in 1987, has announced that she has been barred by the party from standing in the next general election. By lunchtime Starmer was saying that no decision had been taken to block her from standing for Labour. So what's going on and will this botched stage handling backfire for Labour?</p><br /><p>Hannah Barnes, associate editor at the New Statesman, is joined by Freddie Hayward, political correspondent, and Rachel Cunliffe, associate political editor.</p><br /><p>Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter: <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Morning Call</a></p><br /><p>Submit a question for a future episode: <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">You Ask Us</a></p><br /><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><strong>LISTEN AD-FREE:</strong></p><p>📱<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download the New Statesman app</a></p><br /><p><strong>MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:</strong></p><p>❓ <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ask a question</a> – we answer them every Friday</p><p>⏰ <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Get our daily politics newsletter</a> every morning</p><p>✍️ <a href="http://saturdayread.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enjoy the best of our writing</a> via email every Saturday</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>