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Ms Abbott wrote a letter to The Observer newspaper, in response to an article which had the headline: "Racism in Britain is not black and white. It's far more complicated."
The Hackney North MP said she was responding to writer Tomiwa Owolade's claims that "Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from 'racism'".
"They undoubtedly experience prejudice," Ms Abbott wrote.
"This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.
"It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.
"But they are not all their lives subject to racism."
The former shadow home secretary added: "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."
she wished to "wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them".
"The errors arose in an initial draft being sent," she wrote.
"But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused."
She continued: "Racism takes many forms and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, travellers and many others.
"Once again, I would like to apologise publicly for the remarks and any distress caused as a result of them."
news.sky.com...
Ms Abbott, who has been a Labour MP since the 1980s, was yesterday suspended from the parliamentary party pending an investigation into her remarks, which were published in The Observer.
After being pressed three times, Mr Starmer said on Monday he believed her remarks were "antisemitic" and his party was "absolutely right" to act swiftly in response.
news.sky.com...