Diane Abbott has been suspended as a Labour member of parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom's parliament pending an investigation into a letter she wrote for the Observer newspaper suggesting white people, such as Jews, do not face racism.

The decision forces the Hackney North MP to sit as an independent MP in the Commons.

The BBC has reported that in the letter published on Sunday, the politician said "many types of white people with points of difference" can experience prejudice, but they are not subject to racism "all their lives".

The BBC said Labour condemned the comments as "deeply offensive and wrong".

It also noted a tweet from Abbott later stating that she was withdrawing her remarks and apologising "for any anguish caused".

The former shadow home secretary had written that: "In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.

"In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships."

The BBC said Abbott's letter prompted a backlash, including from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which described it as "disgraceful" and her apology "entirely unconvincing".

Abbott was born in London to Jamaican parents from Clarendon.

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