Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, on Tuesday night tried to prevent The Telegraph from publishing details of a court hearing at which her son was accused of assaulting a police officer.

Lawyers acting for the Labour front-bencher wrote to this newspaper after it approached her for comment.

Ms Abbott, 66, will become home secretary in charge of policing if Labour wins the general election in a little over a week’s time.

She has previously expressed her concern in parliament over assaults on police officers and other emergency workers and complained that “for too long police victims of violence have felt like second-class victims”.

In a 2016 Commons debate, which she had requested, she told MPs: “All assaults on the police are unacceptable, and we will discuss how to address them.” Her son, James Abbott-Thompson, 28, was arrested outside the Foreign Office in Whitehall following the altercation with an “emergency worker”.

The alleged assault took place on Friday – less than an hour after the London Bridge terrorist attack. The two incidents are not connected but police would have been at full stretch at the time.

Mr Abbott-Thompson, who previously worked at the Foreign Office, was charged with two counts of assaulting an officer as well as a public order offence.

He appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on Monday and is next due to appear at the City of London magistrates’ court on Feb 7.

In a statement on Tuesday, Scotland Yard said: “A man has been charged with assault following an incident at around 2.45pm Friday Nov 29 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street, Westminster.

“James Adam Abbott-Thompson, 28, was charged on Sunday Dec 1 with two counts of assault by beating of an emergency services worker. He was further charged with an offence under Section 4 of the Public Order Act.”

Ms Abbott was approached by The Telegraph for comment after claims that her son had appeared in court began to circulate on the internet.

Solicitors sent a legal letter shortly after. The details of the letter are private and cannot be published.

Ms Abbott, who is standing as Labour candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington where she is defending a 35,000-plus majority, was heavily criticised for controversially sending her son in 2004 to the fee-paying City of London School, one of Britain’s most prestigious schools.

In 2010, when she was standing for the Labour leadership, Ms Abbott defended sending Mr Abbott-Thompson to the private school, telling this newspaper in an interview that it was “the making of him”.