Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has illustrated a tweet about Syria with a fake illustration of an Israeli jet bombing the capital of Iran.

The computer generated image, which was taken from an aviation blog and posted in 2012, shows an Israeli F-15 fighter over Tehran, with large explosions being spread in its wake.

Abbott posted the image with the message attacking International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt for her interview on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme.

She wrote: ‘Shocking to hear Tory minister on BBC Radio 4 Today claim that you can’t allow Parliament to vote on war because that would be to “outsource the decision to people who don’t have all the info”.

“Do these people understand what parliamentary democracy is?”

The image has been retweeted nearly 2,000 times and liked 2,500 times on Twitter.

Shocking to hear Tory minister on @BBCr4today claim that you can’t allow Parliament to vote on war because that would be to “outsource the decision to people who don’t have all the info” Do these people understand what parliamentary democracy is? pic.twitter.com/1sMxSJb48G — Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 16, 2018

As many people quickly pointed out on Twitter, the image in question illustrated an aviation enthusiast’s blog with this caveat:

The following drawing, exclusively prepared by Al Clark for The Aviationist, shows how an attack by a formation of F-15Is on a nuclear facility located in downtown Tehran might look like. Obviously, it is only a fictional scene…

After being approached by the Daily Telegraph for comment, Ms Abbott tweeted: “Apparently, my use of this pic is ‘important news’.

“Yes, UK goes to war without UN approval or even parliamentary debate. But the most important news is what pics I use in a tweet. Pathetic.”

One Twitter user replied: “It is important when it shows you have absolutely no clue what you’re doing or talking about.”

Tory vice-chair James Cleverly demanded Abbott remove the “outrageous, childish and misleading” tweet as it was a gross misrepresentation of the RAF’s role in the attack. He said:

The picture is outrageous, childish, and misleading, it is totally unacceptable for you to use it. To imply that this was a attack on civilian homes, as the picture does, is a vile misrepresentation and dishonours the RAF personnel involved. Delete the tweet and apologise.

As of Monday afternoon, Abbott had neither deleted the Tweet nor apologised for its use.