'Such disrespect' Abbott row looms over campaign for Hackney North seat

On a bright June afternoon, sunlight bounces off Thomas J Price's artwork Warm Shores, a pair of 9ft bronze statues of a man and woman standing proudly outside Hackney town hall as a celebration of the Windrush generation.

- Lanre Bakare

The statues had a great view when Diane Abbott made a speech outside the civic building confirming she was determined to again contest the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, which sits just to the north, after a major row with Labour.

The party's treatment of Abbott who had the Labour whip removed last year after she wrote that Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers experienced prejudice but not racism, before withdrawing her words and apologising - has been one of the most divisive storylines in the election campaign.

No one is betting against Abbott winning in Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She has represented the north-east London constituency since becoming the first black British female MP in 1987 and at the last general election her majority topped 33,000. But the question of what damage has been done to Labour's relationship with black voters lingers.

The legacy of the Windrush generation, who came from the Caribbean to the UK between 1948 and 1971, is easy to see in the area today: about 20% of the constituency's residents are black, and their votes could be key.

David Weaver, a co-founder and chair of Operation Black Vote, said the Abbott row had left many black voters feeling "despondent" at a time when they could prove decisive in key marginals, such as Dagenham and Rainham farther east, where Jon Cruddas is defending a Labour majority of just 293 and where the black population totals 15,000. "People have felt that there's such a level of disrespect to what's happened to Diane by the Labour party," Weaver said. "People look at that situation and say: 'That's what's been happening to us,' whether that's interactions with schools, the police or politicians."