Before anyone takes Diane Abbott to task again, remember how much abuse she has suffered in her career

On Monday evening I was waiting for a friend in a private members’ club. I know… I despise myself too. I overheard three well-known journalists discussing the row about how shadow home secretary Diane Abbott was treated on Question Time. One of them bellowed: “The thing is, it’s got absolutely NOTHING to do with her being BLACK, it’s because she’s Diane BLOODY Abbott.” And then these established, important, woke, white men fell about laughing for about three days.

Abbott is political Marmite. You either loathe her or really loathe her. Right-wingers despise her. And even so-called progressives on the Left hate her.

Ironically, I remember chairing a Question Time-style event at a conference organised by Progress, which represents the more Blairite wing of the Labour Party, and the audience was super-aggressive. She was shouted down a lot and eventually I had to intervene. I told the crowd that we were going to have a robust discussion but all this heckling had to stop, and that if people couldn’t handle that then they would have to leave. One very ranty man stormed out — but that’s enough about Peter Mandelson — JOKE.

I get upset watching how Abbott gets treated. I know people will be muttering about playing the race card but let’s get real about the type of abuse she gets. Abbott was the first black woman to be elected to Parliament and she has received racist and sexist abuse throughout her career. And it has escalated — she told Amnesty that she had gone from receiving one racist letter a week to hundreds every day, including pictures of swastikas, monkeys and chimpanzees. “It’s the volume of it which is so debilitating, so corrosive and so upsetting,” she said.

None of us can really imagine what it must be like to get that level of abuse and the toll it must take on your mental health. To be honest, I’m surprised she wants to leave the house, let alone carry on in politics.

There are very few black women in public life or positions of power. From our television screens and newsrooms to Parliament to business, black faces are mainly the cleaners, catering or security staff. Abbott is still a curiosity and that attracts hate. That doesn’t mean she is above scrutiny or criticism. Of course not. But the level of vitriol is so disproportionate when compared to the many white male and indeed female politicians who get things wrong.

I was seriously impressed with Fiona Bruce’s debut on Question Time but last week’s show depressed me. In the week when we remembered Martin Luther King, watching a black woman get a good kicking on our flagship political programme felt grim.

For all its faults, Question Time matters. But with power comes responsibility. In these divisive times, as well as showing steel, can’t we see some empathy? Bruce has an opportunity to help change the toxic tone of politics. I wish her well and want her to succeed.

Tulip has shown Parliament the way

All eyes will be on the next round of big Brexit votes next Tuesday but on Monday another important decision will be taken involving Brexit babies. As the Standard’s Kate Proctor reported, MPs will be asked to approve a year-long trial to allow new political parents to vote by proxy.

This comes off the back of Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq delaying her caesarean so she could vote against Theresa May’s Brexit plan. She didn’t want to risk the pairing system — where an opposition MP agrees not to vote as well — because the Tories did the dirty on new mum Jo Swinson last year on a crucial Brexit vote.

Siddiq ended up having to be wheeled through the division lobby in a wheelchair. The good news is her son Raphael was born on Thursday, a cross-party delegation of pregnant women MPs went to see the Speaker and, within a week, they had made progress. How heartening to see leading women from Labour, the Tories, the Lib-Dems and the SNP coming together, working to do the right thing for new parents and modernise Parliament. Our political leaders could learn a thing or two.

A life in politics has served Laura so well

It’s important to remember there’s life after politics. Ed Balls went from almost becoming Chancellor to becoming the world’s most sought-after Gangnam Style performer.

I went from writing speeches to writing comedy.

And this week, my former Labour colleague Laura Shepherd-Robinson publishes her debut novel Blood & Sugar — a dark, historic tale about the slave trade and abolition movement set in Deptford.

The book is brilliant but I was shocked at all the violence, skull-duggery and appalling language.

I asked her where she learned all this from — and she reminded me that she worked in a trade union for many years.