Cambridge educated Diane Abbott MP was one of the first four black MPs on the Labour benches. She is a lively, outspoken, leftwinger and speaks passionately about women's rights, working class issues and racial discrimination. But she was accused of discrimination herself when she said the NHS employed too many blonde Finnish nurses. Diane Abbott was elected MP for the London constituency Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987 but has also been a civil servant, a broadcaster and a journalist. Disgraced Tory Jonathan Aitken was a former colleague of Diane Abbott's on TV-am and is godfather to her son James, christened in 1991. The Labour MP is a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and claimed she was "pressured" on the Sierra Leone inquiry. She supports CND and opposed the Gulf war and military intervention in Bosnia. She is a director of a training consultancy and was on the Chief Whip's list of MPs with a poor voting record.