Special Branch previously holding files on me does not come as a surprise

21 Jun 2013
Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s shadow public health minister and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington responds to Peter Francis’s revelations that Special Branch held files on her, as a ‘subversive’ politician:

‘The fact that Special Branch saw me as subversive and held files on me does not come as a surprise. If you were on the left in that era, that sort of activity by the authorities was to be almost expected.

‘I was not surprised either that the police used undercover officers to smear and discredit the Lawrence family. It was commonplace at that time to observe that, whenever there was a death in custody, information discreditable to the deceased found its way into the public domain. It was clearly a way of trying to undermine any campaign.

‘It remains a disgrace that the time of police officers, which should have been spent finding Stephen Lawrence's killers, was instead spent on trying to discredit the family.

‘The Lawrence family and the wider community deserve a separate judicial inquiry into what happened. Too many people are now claiming to have no knowledge of went on.’

--ENDS--

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