Cambridge Alumna Diane Abbot joins Labour Leadership Race

Leftwing MP Diane Abbott is no stranger to firsts. Back in 1987 she became the first Black woman to be elected to Parliament, and last month she was the first woman to enter contest to succeed Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party.

The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, doubled her majority in the recent local elections and successfully secured the 33 nominations needed to get her on to the ballot paper in the five-horse race alongside Mr Miliband, his brother Ed, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls .

Abbott, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, was previously quoted by The Guardian as highlighting that none of the current frontrunners in the race would admit that the immigration system is "still inefficient and unfair and brings abuse, but nobody will say we have to address the underlying issues behind black and white working-class unease about immigration, about housing, job insecurity.

"And, you know, if we are going to have a debate about immigration, I am the child of immigrants. Don't the millions of British people who are the children of immigrants have a voice in this debate also? I could not be more serious."

Born on September 27th, 1953, in London of Jamaican parents, Abbott was educated at Harrow County Girls' Grammar School and Newnham College, Cambridge, with an MA in History.

Read More
Diane Abbott - website
Diane Abbott - Wikipedia
Diane Abbott's page on 100 Great Black Britons
Abbott joins leadership race - The Guardian, 20 May 2010
Abbott makes the final cut - Daily Mirror, 10 June 2010