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Labour MPs have demanded to know if Diane Abbott would face any consequences for missing a key Brexit vote.

The shadow home secretary was criticised at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster, with some suggesting she had “dodged” the vote to trigger Article 50 by going home with a migraine.

A fifth of Labour MPs voted against the legislation last Wednesday, defying leader Jeremy Corbyn’s three-line whip. Two members of the shadow cabinet resigned over the issue.

A source said: “There were hard questions about what the hell was happening and with discipline in the party, and if someone was shadow home secretary, could they play fast and loose with the rules.”

“People were asking what the chief whip Nick Brown will do to make the system fair if some people in senior positions were allowed to dodge a very important vote, and that opportunity wasn’t allowed to other people.”

Ms Abbott, whose Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency voted strongly to Remain in last year’s EU referendum, left the Commons two hours before she was due to vote in favour of triggering Article 50, which starts Britain’s departure from the EU.

There were claims she could have used the traditional system of “nodding through” where the whip registers an ill member’s vote as long as they are on the Parliamentary estate.

Ms Abbott said she had a migraine and cleared her diary for several days, but was back in the Commons on Monday sitting on the frontbench.

She voted with the party on a series of amendments to the Brexit bill.

Ms Abbott met Jeremy Corbyn on her return to Parliament yesterday and a source said the pair had a “friendly conversation”.

Today Labour’s shadow cabinet met for the first time since the resignation of Dawn Butler and Rachael Maskell.

A source said: “The chief whip said quite honestly that he couldn’t condone the behaviour of people who had broken the whip. Everyone should be treated equally and there should be no feeling that a group could break a whip and get away with it.”