Labour has been accused of hypocrisy over its calls for Priti Patel to be sacked over alleged bullying, as her counterpart Diane Abbott was on Saturday facing claims about her own conduct.

The Telegraph can reveal that the shadow home secretary, who has called for an independent inquiry into Ms Patel, has been accused of shouting at and humiliating a former Labour staff member.

Party insiders have claimed that in 2017, Ms Abbott attempted to have the staffer, who was working on the election campaign in her constituency of Hackney, removed from their post.

The individual, who this newspaper has chosen not to name, was also allegedly shouted at by Ms Abbott in front of party volunteers and “deliberately undermined”, according to sources.

Separately, another Labour source claimed that staff liked by Ms Abbott had been allowed to call her “Diane” while others were asked to refer to her as “Ms Abbott”.

A Labour frontbencher added: “She has got a bit of a whiplash of a tongue. I’ve heard her say things which have made my hair stand up on end.”

Both Labour and Ms Abbott declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph.

However, a close ally categorically denied claims that she had ever made staff refer to her differently, adding that she was “very informal” and would often tell people it was fine to refer to her as Diane.

“I haven’t experienced that kind of behaviour,” they added. “I wouldn’t say there’s never been any disagreements. [But] there’s a big difference between bullying somebody and disagreeing.”