Diane Abbott stepping aside as shadow home secretary 'for period of ill health'

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has been temporarily replaced by Lyn Brown due to ill health, Labour has announced.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced the move on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours before polls open for the General Election.

Ms Abbott pulled out of an appearance on Radio 4's Women's Hour on Tuesday due to ill health, with shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry stepping in at the last minute.

She was later scratched from an Evening Standard hustings. The newspaper's editor, former Chancellor George Osborne, tweeted: "It's not like someone who wants to be Home Sec has much to talk about these days."

A spokesperson for Ms Abbott said: "Ms Abbott will not be talking about her health at this time. There can be no more distractions from the real issues of this General Election.

"Ms Abbott will be joining Labour party colleagues to get the vote out on Thursday."

Just the day before in a Sky News interview, Ms Abbott had struggled to answer questions from Dermot Murnaghan over a key counter-terrorism review.

Despite insisting she had read the review, commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Ms Abbott faltered on questions about merging police forces and putting up security barriers.

Last month, Ms Abbott was again forced to defend herself against claims she wasn't up to the job coming unstuck trying to add up the cost of Labour's big election policing pledge.