Diane Abbott 'whites' tweet: was there a Tory stitch-up?

THE TWEETER who was on the receiving end of Diane Abbott's controversial 'divide and rule' Twitter message, Bim Adewunmi, has raised questions over whether Abbott was caught by a successful Tory stitch-up.

As we now know, Abbott concluded a lengthy exchange with Adewunmi on Wednesday with this tweet: "White people love playing 'divide & rule' We should not play their game #tacticasoldascolonialism."

On the Guardian website today, Adewunmi says: "Nothing much happened, until late night, when I began to get a flurry of replies from non-followers. On Thursday morning, MP Louise Mensch retweeted it with her addendum: 'you what? <~~~ #racism'. Abbott has since apologised and Thursday afternoon deleted the tweet. The remainder of our conversation is still on Twitter."

Louise Mensch, as the Mole pointed out over Christmas, is a rising star on the Tory backbenches – even if she hasn't "risen" as high as she might wish. In an interview with Tory boy Matthew d'Ancona in the new GQ magazine – in which he flatteringly dubs her "the new Iron Lady" – she expresses her frustration at not being promoted in Cameron's government.

Perhaps that'll come after yesterday's effort. By leaping on Abbott, Mensch opened the way for Tories from ethnic minority backgrounds to put the boot into the Labour MP.

As calls mounted for Abbott to be sacked, The Sun reported Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi saying: "This is racism. If this was a white MP saying 'all black people want to do bad things to us', they would have been sacked."

The Tory MPs may have been genuinely outraged but the timing could not have been better for the Tory leadership. It has put the spotlight once more on the leadership of Ed Miliband, already under fire from his own 'guru' Lord Glasman for failing to show a clear strategy, narrative or energy.

The froth has started to subside. Abbott has apologised. Miliband's people have briefed she got a "bollocking" from Ed. And she remains a junior health spokesman in the Shadow Cabinet.

The Mole doubts her position is secure, however.

Miliband put her on the front bench - which meant she had to give up her weekly TV slot with Tory Michael Portillo on Andrew Neil's The Politics Show - because she had been a candidate in the Labour leadership election.

What everyone seems to have forgotten is that Abbott came last in the leadership race, not because of her racial background, but because she showed - let's be polite - a less than secure grasp of policy. It is for that reason that she might be quietly dropped in the future. Not because of her tweets. ·