THERE is no more pressing issue for the left right now than expressing practical solidarity with Diane Abbott over her shameful and racist treatment by the Starmer apparatus in the Labour Party.

She has stated this week that she no longer expects to get a fair hearing from Labour over her suspension, which has already gone on for several months.

The newspaper letter which led to the sanction was certainly wrong. Not only are Jewish people exposed to racism, they have historically suffered the very worst manifestations of it in the Nazi genocide.

However, Abbott immediately apologised unreservedly. What more is there to investigate?

The first black woman MP in our history, and not coincidentally the recipient of more racist and misogynistic abuse than any other parliamentarian by a mile, has been hung out to dry for reasons that are both factional and racist.

The racism is blatant once the record under Starmer is considered. Shadow cabinet member Steve Reed accused a Jewish businessman of being a “puppet master.” He apologised – no sanction.

Veteran backbench MP Barry Sheerman speculated about a “run on silver shekels” when two Jewish businessmen did not get a peerage. He apologised, referencing his long support for Labour Friends of Israel – no sanction.

Corbyn-hating MP Neil Coyle was suspended from the Commons after a drunken racist rant.  He apologised and is now back in the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Labour candidate for the safe seat of Barking, Darren Rodwell, claimed that he had “the worst tan possible for a black man.” He apologised and was allowed to stand.

All these four are white men. It may be as relevant that they are factional allies of the Starmer regime, which is also trying to hound Jeremy Corbyn and Jamie Driscoll out of office. But the racism in the difference in treatment is unanswerable.

That is no surprise. Has the Labour Party apparatus changed fundamentally from the racist, sexist poison it espoused, as exposed in the leaked report on the party’s handling of anti-semitism?

Martin Forde KC, appointed by Starmer to investigate that report, warned that the party was practising a hierarchy of racism. Starmer has shown scant interest in taking Forde’s finding seriously. The treatment of Abbott proves it.

So what is to be done? A number of Labour MPs on the left have expressed strong solidarity with Abbott. But that can be no more than a first step. Such declarations availed Corbyn little.

At the very least there should be a collective delegation to confront Starmer over his abuse of authority. The unions represented on Labour’s national executive committee should not stay silent either.

Hopes for a Labour government cannot override principle in defending Britain’s first black woman MP against the racists. If needs be, black members’ organisations and other left caucuses in Unite, Unison, the GMB and elsewhere should be demanding that their unions speak out and vote to end this outrage.

Black community organisations should also be bombarding Labour with resolutions, and give the apparatus no peace until it backs down.

Diane Abbott made a mistake for which she immediately expressed absolute regret. It could have been a positive teaching moment about different forms and expressions of racism. Instead, Starmer has, through factional malice, turned it into a confrontation between racism and solidarity.

This is about more than Abbott, richly deserving of solidarity though she is. It is about whether Labour advances to the next election with any claim on the support of black and ethnic minority voters and, indeed, the slightest scrap of decency left.