Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.
A party spokesperson confirmed the decision to Sky News but did not give a reason why.
It comes after the veteran MP defended previous comments about racism which led to a year-long suspension.
She apologised at the time and was readmitted back into the party just before last year’s general election.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”
Sky News understands that the suspension is not related to the four rebels who lost the whip yesterday for “repeated breaches” of party discipline, including voting against the government’s welfare cuts.
The investigation will look into comments in which she seemingly did not apologise for the controversy she sparked in April 2023.
In a letter to The Observer which drew heavy criticism, Ms Abbott argued that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives” and said that was different to the “prejudice” experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers.
Shortly after it was published, she issued a statement in which she said she wished to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them”.
However in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme this week, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.
She said: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.
“But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. They are different types of racism.”
She added: “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.
“I don’t know why people would say that.”
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