Diane Abbott’s string of poor media performances was due to a long-term illness, a shadow cabinet colleague said yesterday after Jeremy Corbyn withdrew her from the front line.
Mr Corbyn began the last day of the election campaign by announcing that Ms Abbott had been replaced as shadow home secretary and was “taking a break from the campaign” on health grounds.
A disastrous radio interview, in particular, in which she struggled to cost Labour’s policing policy made her an inevitable target for Tory attacks on the party’s credibility. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, took her place for a debate on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and a hustings organised by the Evening Standard on Tuesday.
Barry Gardiner, her shadow cabinet colleague, said that Ms Abbott, 63, was suffering from a “long-term condition” which had led to below-par media performances. “Diane is clearly not well and I understand that it is a condition which has been diagnosed and is long-term,” the shadow international trade secretary told Talkradio.
“I think anybody who has seen her in the past couple of weeks would realise that she was showing that she was not well, in the way in which she had been operating. Everybody is aware that Diane didn’t perform well in a couple of programmes, but what we didn’t know was why and I think that has now become clear.”
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He added: “I am sorry for her, obviously, that she has got this condition and clearly it is now a matter for her to get properly diagnosed and properly treated and I wish her well in her recovery.”
The Times revealed this week that Ms Abbott had refused to cancel prominent media interviews despite appeals from senior party figures, including Mr Corbyn. Some Labour figures suspected that John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, wanted to sideline Ms Abbott, a rival for Mr Corbyn’s ear, because he feared she would urge him to quit if Labour lost the election. Mr McDonnell said he wished her a “speedy recovery”.
Ms Abbott tweeted yesterday: “Still standing! Will rejoin the fray soon. Vote Labour!”
She has been replaced until further notice by Lyn Brown, Labour’s candidate for West Ham and a former whip.
Profile
Diane Abbott, 63, had a varied career before joining the House of Commons as the member for Hackney North & Stoke Newington in 1987, when she became the first black woman elected to parliament (Hannah McGrath writes).
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Born to Jamaican parents in London in 1953, she was educated at a grammar school in Harrow and read history at Cambridge.
After a two-year stint as a graduate trainee in the Home Office, she worked as a race relations officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties.
After switching to work as a researcher and reporter at Thames Television, she became a press officer at the Greater London Council and Lambeth council. She entered politics as a member of Westminster city council in 1982, serving until 1986.
She ran for the Labour leadership in May 2010 and lost to Ed Miliband, who made her shadow minister for public health.
A long-term friend and ally of Jeremy Corbyn, she was made shadow international development secretary in his first shadow cabinet in 2015, rising to shadow health secretary a year ago. She was appointed shadow home secretary in a reshuffle last October.
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Her son attended a £10,000-a-year private school.