Labour leader says shadow home secretary will be temporarily replaced by Lyn Brown after Abbott pulled out of two election events on Tuesday

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, is to step down temporarily due to ill health, Jeremy Corbyn has said. The shadow policing minister, Lyn Brown, will stand in for her.

It is understood that Abbott has recently been diagnosed with a long-term health condition, which her doctors have been attempting to manage.

However, it is non-life threatening, and not deemed serious enough to impair her ability to take on the job of home secretary if Labour wins the election.

Abbott herself tweeted:

Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) Touched by all the messages of support. Still standing! Will rejoin the fray soon. Vote Labour!

Speaking on a campaign visit to Glasgow, Corbyn said Abbott was still not well after she pulled out of two election events on Tuesday.



Labour said in a statement: “Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party, has asked Lyn Brown to stand in for Diane Abbott as shadow home secretary for the period of her ill health.”



Another Labour MP, Barry Gardiner, said Abbott had been diagnosed with a long-term medical condition, but that he had no further details.



Gardiner, the Brent North MP, told Talk Radio: “I don’t have her medical condition. I’m given to understand she’s been diagnosed … It’s a long-term condition, and she’s been coming to terms with that.”



Gardiner said he did not know any more, and that he had been told this by a Labour official.

Abbott’s friends were furious with Gardiner, saying he had “overstepped the mark” and it was “outrageous” to discuss her health in public.

Another shadow minister played down the seriousness of the condition, saying: “Everyone, in every job, gets ill from time to time. That’s just the way it is.”

Friends of Abbott denied reports that she had not been consulted before her break from the role was announced, pointing out that Brown is her deputy and the move could not have taken place without Abbott’s say so.

Speaking to reporters during her final round of campaign events, Theresa May wished Abbott a speedy recovery.



Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) Theresa May flies to Norfolk for final campaign push. She refuses to be drawn on what victory looks like. Wishes Diane A a "speedy recovery" pic.twitter.com/qTt9uWd2KB

Abbott, 63, had been due to take part in a debate on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and a hustings organised by the London Evening Standard on Tuesday, but was replaced by the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, with Labour saying Abbott was ill.



The MP for Hackney North, who has been shadow home secretary since October, has faced increasingly vehement criticism from the Conservatives and others following a series of difficult interviews.



At the start of May, in an interview on LBC, Abbott repeatedly stumbled over the cost of Labour’s pledge to hire 10,000 extra police officers, initially suggesting the bill would be just £300,000, before correcting herself several times.

She was featured on the front page of Wednesday’s Daily Mail, with Corbyn and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, under the headline: “Apologists for terror.”

Corbyn told BBC Breakfast that Abbott had not been well for a couple of days and was taking a break from the campaign. He said: “Diane is somebody that works extremely hard and represents her community very well and I have to say has received totally unfair levels of attack and abuse, not just recently – over many years.”



Asked how long she would be away from her role, Corbyn replied: “I’ll be talking to her later on today – she’s not well at the moment.”



Abbott has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington in north-east London since 1987. She remained on the backbenches until Ed Miliband made her a junior shadow health minister in 2010. Under the leadership of Corbyn, a long-time political ally, she took the shadow roles for international development and health before becoming shadow home secretary.

Brown, 57, has represented West Ham since 2005. She was appointed to Labour’s shadow home affairs team when Corbyn named his first frontbench team in 2015. She was among a series of MPs who resigned the following year after the Brexit referendum and subsequent vote of no confidence in Corbyn’s leadership. She said then that Labour should seek a new leader “for the good of the party and the country”.

She rejoined the frontbench three months later as minister for policing.

Brown held her safe east London seat in 2015 with a majority of almost 28,000. She was a Labour whip under Gordon Brown and Miliband, before being appointed shadow minister for communities and local government in 2013 and then shadow Home Office minister two years later.