Beleaguered Labour MP Diane Abbott has come under fire yet again after being fooled by a prankster pretending to be a top party adviser in an email hoax.

The shadow home secretary replied to a chain of emails that she thought were from party spin doctor Seumas Milne following her withdrawal from BBC Woman's Hour this morning after being 'taken ill'.

But they were actually sent from a fake account set up by a joker in a bid to prank the politician.

The hoax artist, who goes by the username @SINON_REBORN on Twitter, has previously tricked Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Barclays boss Jes Staley.

It comes after Abbott backed out of a radio interview today claiming she had been 'taken ill' in the wake of another toe-curling TV meltdown.

Diane Abbott, pictured, replied to a chain of emails that she thought were from party spin doctor Seumas Milne

In the emails she says: 'I have at least four journalists/photographers doorstepping me'

The original hoax email said that Seumas Milne had been speaking to 'JC' - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - and wanted to add 'some colour' to the illness that prevented Abbott from appearing on BBC Woman's Hour this morning

Abbott replied: 'Do you still want to add colour to the illness story? If so maybe we should speak'

The 38-year-old prankster from Manchester posted screenshots of Abbott's replies - which appear to have been sent from her personal account.

In the emails the politician reveals private details about her health and says she is hesitant to tell 'untruths' about it in the press.

The hoaxer tells Abbott he had spoken to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the pair think she should 'add some colour' to the illness which prevented her from taking part in the radio debate with Amber Rudd this morning.

He adds: 'Flesh it out with some more detail if you will, perhaps also mention some medication which might be retrospectively seen as a mitigating reason for the Murnaghan interview.'

Abbott's reply reads: 'Do you still want to add colour to the illness story? If so maybe we should speak.'

After the exchange was posted, the hoaxer, who says he has no political affiliation and refused to give his name, warned: 'If I was a North Korean or Russian hacker I could have sent her god knows what to download.'

He told MailOnline: 'My mate challenged me and said I couldn't prank her. There was no money on the bet, I just thought I'd give it a go.

'I honestly didn't expect it to be as easy as it was. I was a bit unsure how i'd make the prank amusing as I try and keep it non-political and light-hearted.

'Deciding to be Seumas was literally a spur of the moment thing I decided as I was having a cup of tea this morning.

'I thought it was a bit convenient she was 'ill' after such a mess of an interview.

'I tried to get some humour in there, but it didn't really work. I do however feel that anyone with responsibility for money/health/safety should not be allowed a personal email address. It's leaving us all open to an attack.

'I've absolutely nothing against her, I think her grasp on figures is a little ropey, but I don't judge her as a person. She has a kind-looking face.'

Abbott was caught out after failing to check the email address which sent the message - much like the prankster's previous targets.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney was tricked into joking about a colleague's drinking habits when the individual pretended to be the chairman of the board of the Bank of England.

A photograph posted on Twitter appears to show Ms Abbott at Oxford Circus tube station, just around the corner from the BBC Radio 4 studios, this morning. Her aides have not been answering calls and Labour merely stressed that her withdrawal had been down to 'illness'

He also fooled Barclays boss Jess Staley using the address 'john.mcfarlane.barclays@gmail.com'.

A Labour spokesman told MailOnline: 'We're not commenting on fake emails.'

It comes after the shadow home secretary was left floundering on Sky News when she was asked about a key counter-terrorism report last night.

Under questioning from Dermot Murnaghan Ms Abbott desperately struggled to give answers about the content of the Harris report.

She was due to appear on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour today for a debate with Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

But less than half an hour before the programme was due to begin producers said they had been informed she was 'ill'.

In a faltering performance punctuated by long pauses, Ms Abbott claimed she had read the report produced by Lord Harris in October last year

The close Corbyn ally seems to have made it to within striking distance of the BBC studios, however - with a photograph posted on Twitter showing her apparently on her phone at Oxford Circus Tube station at 8.40am.

This afternoon it emerged she has also pulled out of an Evening Standard election hustings event tonight.

Despite Ms Abbott's shambolic performance, Labour supporters including singer Lily Allen claimed that criticism of her was down to 'racist sexist abuse'. Aides insisted she would not be 'talking about her health at this time'.

And when challenged is she has damaged Labour's campaign, Jeremy Corbyn said Ms Abbott has done a 'good job' - but refused to say if he will make her Home Secretary if he is elected on Thursday.

But the episode will draw comparisons with Ms Abbott's failure to make the historic Article 50 vote in February. Labour colleagues accused her of 'bottling' the vote after she claimed to have suffered a 'migraine' despite being at the Commons all day.

In a toe-curling showing last night punctuated by long pauses, Ms Abbott claimed she had read the report produced by former Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Lord Toby Harris in October last year.

ABBOTT'S HISTORY OF BUNGLED MEDIA PERFORMANCES The latest TV car crash interview comes after Mrs Abbott was humiliated in an LBC radio show when she said it would cost just £300,000 to pay for an extra 10,000 police officers. She later upper this to £80million, but this would still fall far short and only give each policeman an annual salary of £8,000. The policy is actually costed at £300m a year by 2021/22. The Prime Minister said the blunder was no laughing matter and shows the chaos that lies ahead if Jeremy Corbyn is elected PM on June 8. Ms Abbott was left stuttering stuttering as she failed to answer the simple question of how much it would cost to implement Labour's policing pledge. The toe-curling appearance on LBC radio raised questions about the basic competence of Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet team. Diane Abbott gave another shambolic interview on ITV when she did not know how many seats Labour had lost in local elections Although Mr Corbyn tried to claim he had not been 'embarrassed' by his senior colleague. Asked how much the policy would cost, Ms Abbott said: 'Well, erm... if we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four-year period, we believe it will be about £300,000.' Presenter Nick Ferrari replied: '£300,000 for 10,000 police officers? What are you paying them?' A confused Ms Abbott replied : 'Haha, no. I mean... sorry. They will cost... they will, it will cost, erm, about... about £80million.' Ferrari suggested even that would mean paying each police officer just £8,000 over four years - or £2,000 annually. The average salary of an officer is around £30,000. A floundering Ms Abbott, who was not in the studio but could be heard frantically leafing through papers, said: 'We get to that figure because we anticipate recruiting 25,000 extra police officers a year at least over a period of four years and we're looking at both what average police wages are generally, but also specifically police wages in London.' Days later, the shadow home secretary gave another car crash interview when asked what the party's net losses were so far in local elections. 'At the time of us doing this interview, I think the net losses are about 50,' she said, to which the ITV journalist replied: 'They are actually 125 net losses so far.' But Ms Abbott said: 'Well the last time I looked we had net losses of 100 but obviously this is a moving picture.' Diane Abbott winced as her shambolic interview with LBC was played back when she appeared on the BBC's Daily Politics Advertisement

But she was unable to identify a single one of the 127 recommendations when asked about it by Mr Murnaghan last night.

She said it was time to 'revisit that report'.

But asked which elements she was interested in, she paused and said: 'I just think it's about resilience.'

Asked if she knew what the report suggested, she replied: 'I know he was talking about preparedness and resilience and I do think we need to act, not necessarily on every specific recommendation…'

Asked again about the specifics she said: 'I thought, because I know Toby Harris – he's a longstanding London politician – I thought it was an important review and we should act on it, obviously acting with stakeholders…'

Evening Standard editor and former Chancellor George Osborne ridiculed Ms Abbott on Twitter for pulling out of the hustings

Mr Murnaghan finally put Ms Abbott out of her misery by informing her that the report's recommendations included merging London's police forces, which she then voiced caution about.

He then asked her about the report's recommendations on greater 'physical resilience'.

She appeared not to know these included erecting new barriers to protect pedestrians from vehicle attacks, saying only: 'Yes, I think physical resilience is important.'

Asked about the specifics, she replied: 'I think physical resistance is important.'

Ms Abbott was reported to have been banned from doing media appearances at the weekend following a series of disastrous outings.

Until last night she had given no interviews since the London Bridge terror attacks.

But she denied that Mr Corbyn and the shadow chancellor John McDonnell had ordered her off the airwaves.

Asked if she was considered 'a bit of a liability' by Labour's high command, she replied: 'I, well I'm here. I've just come from doing aother media interview, I'm going on to do another. There's no truth in the idea I'm not in the media, particularly talking about what happened on London Bridge

Mr Murnaghan then asked if she considered herself an asset or a liability to the party, prompting the reply: 'I think I'm shadow home secretary and it would be very strange if the shadow home secretary wasn't doing interviews like this.'

Ms Abbott also ducked questions about whether she would become home secretary if Labour win the election on Thursday, saying: 'The most important thing in three or four days' time is that we win the general election and then Jeremy will choose his cabinet.'

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry filled in for her colleague on Woman's Hour this morning, but was forced to admit she did not have some figures to hand because it was 'slightly last minute me coming here'.

At one point she admitted to rooting around and finding notes 'in the bottom of my handbag'.

The Tories have mocked Ms Abbott in campaign posters suggesting Labour would install a home secretary who 'can't add up'.

And Theresa May has repeatedly used media performances to warn of the dangers of installing Ms Abbott in the Home Office.