Political lives Gladstone vs Abbott

William Gladstone, who lived from 1809 to 1898, was leader of the Liberal party and prime minister on four separate occasions. He is considered to have been a great reformer and one of Britain’s greatest political leaders. He supported Home Rule for Ireland and disavowed the imperial jingoism of late Victorian Britain. In Parliament he spoke out against the abolition of slavery because his family used slaves on their West Indian plantation. Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, has been an MP continuously since 11 June 1987. Born in London in 1953, she studied at Cambridge and became the first black woman ever elected to Parliament and has held positions including Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow home secretary.