Diane Abbott has confirmed she intends to "run and win" for re-election as a Labour MP at the General Election.
It comes after Keir Starmer finally gave the veteran left-winger the green light to stand for Labour in July after months of uncertainty over her future. Posting on X, Ms Abbott - the first Black woman elected to Parliament in 1987 - also denied reports she had been offered a peerage to quit the Commons.
She said: "This is factually incorrect. I have never been offered a seat in the Lords, and I would not accept one if offered. I am the adopted Labour candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington. I intend to run and win as Labour's candidate".
On Sunday her close friend Baroness Shami Chakrabarti said the ex-Shadow Cabinet Minister should "take a few days" to decide whether to run. The Labour peer said Ms Abbott had been the victim of a "sometimes sordid week of unauthorised anonymous briefings by overgrown schoolboys in suits".
Baroness Chakrabarti, who served in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet with Ms Abbott, said she hoped her friend isn't pressured by either fans or detractors. She told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "I hope she will take some time to consider what she wants to do and that's what I've suggested to her as her friend."
Michelle Mone's husband gifted Tories 'over £171k' as Covid PPE row rumbles on"I think it's important now for this not to be decided by fans or detractors of my dear friend. I want her to decide what she wants to do and take a few days over that."
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While Ms Abbott had the whip restored last week after a year-long suspension there were reports the party was planning to block her from standing at the General Election. But after days of intense pressure over the row, the Labour leader finally confirmed on Friday that Ms Abbott was free to go forward as the party's candidate.
Hitting out at those who briefed against her, Baroness Chakrabarti added: "I hope they remember it's supposed to be country first, not faction first." But she declined to point the finger of blame at Mr Starmer's office, stating: "I have been assured I have been personally assured by the leadership of the Labour Party, the senior most people in the Labour Party that these briefings were unauthorised. And of course they're anonymous."