Diane Abbott has appeared to play down rape allegations levelled against Julian Assange as MPs branded her defence of the WikiLeaks founder “disgraceful”.

The shadow home secretary has risked a major row with backbench colleagues after she claimed Mr Assange was being targeted for leaking “embarrassing information” about the US military and security services.

When challenged over the rape allegations made against Mr Assange, Ms Abbott said that the “charges were never brought”, adding: “it’s not [about] the rape charges”.

Challenged by the presenter, who said that Mr Assange was a man “suspected of rape”, she replied: “Those charges were never brought.”

It came just hours after Jeremy Corbyn called on the Government to oppose Julian Assange’s extradition to the US over allegations that he conspired to hack into a classified Pentagon computer.

The WikiLeaks co-founder was on Thursday arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been holed up for almost seven years.

He now faces decades in a US prison for espionage after Ecuador revoked his asylum and allowed officers from Scotland Yard to storm the premises in Knightsbridge.