Labour’s weak poll rating can be overturned, Diane Abbott said today, as she accused Theresa May of a “massive u-turn” over the shock general election.

Abbott, the shadow home secretary, toured broadcast studios to make the case for Corbynism after two polls put Labour 21 points behind the Tories.

She told the BBC’s World at One that “now we are in a general election campaign, and people have got to make a choice between Theresa May’s Britain and Jeremy Corbyn’s Britain.”

“They need to make a choice between an unpleasant, xenophobic, hard Brexit, and a Brexit that will protect jobs and living standards. There’s no question in my mind the Tories will fight a very unpleasant campaign and the electorates going to have to make a choice,” she added.

“I was an MP in the 80s and people said we were finished then, people said the SDP was going to be the natural party of government, it wasn’t true then, it’s not true now.”

“My point is this, the Labour party has a history, it has a base, it has values and the Westminster elite may try to knock us out, but out in the country I think they’re going to be prepared to listen to what we have to say.”

“We are ready for this general election now. And I believe the British public is ready to listen to what we have to say. Faced with Theresa May’s Britain, faced with the sort of Britain that Theresa May and her colleagues want to bring about, and faced with our positive offer: a more equal Britain, a fairer Britain, a Brexit that protects jobs and living standards, I believe the British people will come behind us.”

Abbott told Sky News that the pollsters have got it wrong recently both in Britain and the US, and that as such there is a good chance Labour could be successful in the snap election.

“We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to fight this election to win.”