Diane Abbott MP

Meet Diane Abbott, who has been the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 11 June 1987

Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington

“Politics has never been just about having a career… it has given me the power to help people and change their lives for the better,” says Diane Abbott MP.

She adds: “I wanted to make the world a better place. I come from a working-class Black family and my parents left school at 14 years old.

“Unless you come from a particular community, it is hard to understand the difficulties that community has. It is important for young people to see people that look like them in positions of authority.”

Ms Abbott, who was born to a British-Jamaican family in West London, was the first Black woman elected to parliament.

Today, she is the longest-serving Black MP, as well as the longest continually serving female MP, making her the ‘Mother of the House’.

On her childhood Ms Abbott says: “I grew up surrounded by Jamaican family and friends and absorbed a sense of culture almost through my pores.”

She was only the third Black girl to go to Newnham College, Cambridge. Ms Abbott recalls: “The university itself was an extremely white world. There were only two other non-white undergraduates at Newnham when I was there.

“My experiences at Cambridge University brought home to me how much inequality there was in the country.”

Ms Abbott started her political life when she joined the Hampstead constituency Labour Party in the late 1970s – which was known for its left-leaning views at the time.

She says: “We had a distinct set of political views, including support for gay rights, race equality, campaigning for Palestine and support for a United Ireland.”

A decade later, Ms Abbott was elected as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She recalls: “On election night at Hackney Town Hall I was wearing red, and my hair was a mass of long braids. The red was for socialism and the braids were a nod to my African heritage.

“In the days that followed I met many older West Indians who told me how proud it made them feel to see someone who looked like them in Parliament.

“When I became an MP the first thing I did was to move into Hackney and set up a weekly local advice session… to this day I live in my constituency.”

Ms Abbott has seen first-hand how the borough has changed over the years. She says: “Hackney has become more gentrified since I was first elected and the housing situation has worsened.

“This is by far the topic that I get the most casework about. People in Hackney want suitable and affordable homes. They would like the Government to allocate more funding to good quality social housing.

“Despite that, Hackney still has a great mix and a fantastic energy. There’s always so much going on culturally. And it’s very green and walkable.”