Diane Abbott

Biography

Diane Abbott was successfully elected as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in May 2010 with a majority of 14,461 votes.

In 1987 Diane Abbott made history by becoming the first black women ever elected to be an MP. She has since built a distinguished career as a parliamentarian, broadcaster and commentator. Diane was born in London in 1953. She attended grammar school in Harrow and went on to obtain a Masters in History from Cambridge. When she left Cambridge Diane joined Government as a Home Office Civil Servant. She went on to work for the lobby group the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), and then became a journalist. She worked extensively as a freelancer and she went on to work as a reporter for the breakfast television company TV-AM and Thames Television. She also worked as a public relations consultant for various public sector clients. Diane has served on a number of parliamentary committees on social and international issues. She was also elected onto the National Executive of the Labour Party. For most of the 1990s she served on the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons. She went on to serve on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. More recently she set up a special parliamentary committee investigating gun crime and she chairs the All Party Parliamentary British-Caribbean Group. Diane's work in Parliament has centred on education, crime, civil liberties, immigration and international affairs. Diane is founder of the London Schools and the Black Child initiative, which aims to raise educational achievement levels amongst Black children. For this she hosts an annual conference for educators, children and their parents and an annual academic awards ceremony.

Constituency

Hackney North and Stoke Newington

Constituency Address

Constituency Tel

Date of Birth

27/9/1953

Email

millsj@parliament.uk

Party

Labour

Personal Website

http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk/

Westminster Address

House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel

020 7219 4426