Shadow International Development Secretary Diane Abbott has been silent on the state of emergency in Venezuela.
This is odd – and not just because of Abbott’s place as a foreign affairs spokesman on the Labour front bench.
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According to parliamentary records, in October 2012 Abbott accepted £2,967.90 worth of flights and accommodation from the Venezuelan National Electoral Council “to witness the Venezuelan Presidential election 2012.”
In Venezuela as an official observer for the elections. https://t.co/H7ynxsr3
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) October 5, 2012
She enjoyed a five-day trip to the Latin American socialist state, which she has previously declared shows “another way is possible” in terms of austerity cuts.
Hugo Chavez won the 2012 election but was never sworn in because of medical complications.
On Chavez’s death, he was succeeded by the incumbent, his political ally Nicolas Maduro.
Why does Abbott have nothing to say about the turmoil infecting Venezuela just now? I thought it was her job to speak out on such issues.
Or does the fact that the Chavez/Maduro experiment has descended into chaos account for her uncharacteristic silence?
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Parliamentary records show that Abbott has accepted more than £200,000 in payments from the BBC in recent years.
This includes the time in 2006 when she was invited to appear in BBC series Play It Again, in which she took piano lessons paid for by licence fee payers.
As part of the show, Abbott was flown to a piano school in France for a week. She spent a further week visiting relations in Jamaica to show off her (limited) skills. All expenses were paid. On top of this she picked up an eye-watering £14,326 appearance fee.
She has been given thousands more working for broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 as well – and earned a reputation for greed while doing so.
In 2013 she appeared on a celebrity edition of ITV game show The Chase in which she won £1,000. She donated the money to a sickle cell charity but what viewers did not realise was that Abbott quietly trousered a £5,000 fee for her appearance.
On another occasion, in 2010, she charged ITN £300 for taking part in filming an obituary item.
If she’s not going to talk about the Venezuela crisis, she could surely return the £2,967.90 to the Venezuelan people.
