Miss Abbott later deleted the comments and said they had been taken out of context. She said: "Refers to nature of 19th century European colonialism. Bit much to get into 140 characters."



A Labour party spokesman said: "We disagree with Diane's tweet. It is wrong to make sweeping generalisations about any race, creed, or culture. The Labour party has always campaigned against such behaviour, and so has Diane Abbott."