What’s up in Westminster?

EACH WEEK A FEMALE MPG IV ES US THE INSIDER VIEW FROM PARLIAMENT

Bell Ribeiro-addy, the Labour MP who replaced Chuka Umuna in Streatham in December’s election, on the reality of working in Westminster – and with Brexit looming

Boris Johnson has said he’s going to ‘get Brexit done’ but it can’t be done by 31 January, it’s going to take years of negotiating. People haven’t been told the truth about the cost of it all and loads of people will be left in limbo. I’m really worried about what will happen with immigration: these are our partners, friends and neighbours we’re talking about, and they have a right to be here. They prop up our public services and it’d be a disaster if they leave. For EU nationals, Brexit is another Windrush scandal waiting to happen. We can’t register them all by next week. It’s going to take years to do that.

Before I was Labouramn I was an MPP,

Diane Abbott’s chief of staff for four years. No one could prepare me for the amount of racism she receives. It’s always been bad but it exploded when she became a big part of Jeremy Corbyn’s team. It blew up every time the media put out a negative story about her. I never thought I’d have to read the n-word so much coming to work in Parliament but people would call and shout it down the phone; they’d send monkey cards and death threats. It was absolutely horrendous.

‘ No one could have prepared me for the racism MPS receive’

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I got very upset about it and begged Diane to speak out. But she rarely did because she didn’t want to appear a victim. It got to the point where I thought, why would anyone put themselves through this? What’s the point? But Diane said something that really stuck with me: that we need more black women who are willing to make a stand and she hoped her experience didn’t put anyone off, because if it had then the bigots had won. This drove me to stand and continue campaigning against racism and fighting for migrants’ rights.

Racism absolutely must have played a part in Meghan Markle wanting to leave. Obviously, Meghan is mixed-heritage but the British media has made such a fact of it she’s appeared more black than ever. They can’t see her as anything else, it’s disgusting. It makes us look bigoted on the world stage and it’s embarrassing. I don’t want to believe that’s the case – we’ve been a tolerant country in the past, but something has changed and this is on par with what we’re seeing at the moment – we’re even turning child refugees away. I feel a pang of being able to relate to it, but Diane and Meghan have experienced something none of us could experience. I don’t blame Meghan for wanting to leave. She’s been bullied out.