Suspended London Labour MP Kate Osamor to get whip back 'imminently'

A London Labour MP suspended from the party for suggesting that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza is expected to get the whip back “imminently”.

Kate Osamor issued an apology for “any offence caused” by a message she wrote on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in January.

The Edmonton MP had appeared to say that the war in the Palestinian territory should be remembered as a genocide, alongside atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II as well as other mass slaughters in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia.She was denounced by Labour shadow ministers for the remarks and the party said it was “generally accepted across the board as offensive” to use the Holocaust to criticise Israel.

Labour sources on Thursday told the Standard that Ms Osamor would be reinstated as a Labour MP “imminently” following an investigation.

Some 35,000 people are believed to have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its counter attack after the brutal October 7 assault by Hamas.

Ms Osamor, who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench, has apologised for her comments.

She said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the genocides that have occurred since.

“I apologise for any offence caused by my reference to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza as part of that period of remembrance.”

But the move to reinstate her has put pressure on the party to come to a decision over Diane Abbott, one Labour staffer said on Thursday.

The Hackney North MP had the whip suspended in April last year after comments she made suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”.

Ms Abbott, a former shadow home secretary, wrote a letter to the The Observer where she said that although white people “with points of difference” suffer prejudice, they have not suffered the same racism as black people.

Following a backlash she apologised for any “anguish” caused, suggesting “errors arose” in her initial draft letter to the newspaper.

She has described the ongoing investigation into her conduct as “a sham”.