Labour chiefs ‘ban Diane Abbott from going on TV after string of car crash interviews’ – so how do they expect her to run the Home Office?
She's agreed not to go on TV again until after the election
LABOUR chiefs have reportedly banned Diane Abbott from doing any lone interviews until after the election - after a string of car-crash appearances.
The Shadow Home Secretary has been subjected to a flurry of fury from other frontbenchers after her repeated meltdowns on TV.
that Ms Abbott "had agreed not to freelance again before election day".
A source told the newspaper: "There is now an agreement with Diane that it won't happen again, but obviously it shouldn't have happened in the first place."
Labour sources said that John McDonnell and even Jeremy Corbyn HIMSELF tried to phone Ms Abbott last week before she went on the Andrew Marr Show - to try and get her to pull out.
But Ms Abbott went on the programme anyway on Sunday morning.
She is thought to have made arrangements to go on the show without the consent of the Labour campaign.
The interview last Sunday was widely mocked, where she said she "regrets" calling for the IRA to defeat the British state - and made a bizarre claim about changing her views like changing her hairstyle.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
She said: "It was 34 years ago. I had a rather splendid afro. I don't have the same hairstyle and I don't have the same views."
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, also a guest on the show, quickly hit out at her rival.
She said: "I have also changed my hair over 30 years like Diane Abbott but I have not changed my view on how to keep Britain safe."
Diane Abbott's latest gaffes
- Ms Abbott called in the 1980s for the "defeat of the British state", saying that if Irish republican hardliners won it would be "a victory for all of us".
- After becoming an MP, she called for “the abolition of conspiratorial groups like MI5 and Special Branch", and she has branded the Home Office as fundamentally racist.
- She was fiercely criticised when, despite her socialist views, she sent her son to a pricey private school.
- Ms Abbott was not a popular choice as a shadow minister - backbench MP Jess Phillips once told her to "f*** off" during a party meeting.
- And a few weeks ago she became a figure of fun when she suggeted in an interview that it was possible to hire 10,000 extra police officers for just £300,000.
Others in the shadow cabinet have said the disastrous LBC interview where she suggested paying police officers £30 a year by mistake - was coming up on the doorstep with unimpressed voters.
Asked about reports that he had tried to keep his ally off the airwaves last weekend, Jeremy Corbyn refused to say whether he did ask her to pull out.
He said: "I think you're reading too much into The Times.
"Diane was on the Marr show, she spoke for our party and that is the story."
He went on: "I had a chat with Diane about what she might say on the Marr show, yes.
"I have a chat with a lot of people in my shadow cabinet very often actually - I think that's pretty normal in life, isn't it?"
Asked if he told Ms Abbott not to appear, Mr Corbyn said: "Diane went on the show and she spoke up for our party."
It comes as lefty Corbyn cheerleader Mark Mason sparked fury by suggesting that Theresa May’s attacks on Diane Abbott are racist.
The former Channel 4 journo said: "It’s time somebody called out the dog whistle racism behind Tory insults to Diane Abbott and I just decided to do it."
He got into a furious slinging match on the Newsnight with commentator Iain Dale.
Mason said: "What's this racism about Diane Abbott? Why do you hate black home secretaries?"
Jeremy Corbyn confirmed earlier this week that his top team would stay in place if becomes PM.
John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Emily Thornberry would fill the senior jobs of Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, the Labour boss said.
Earlier this week The Sun revealed that she branded the UK "one of the most fundamentally racist nations"
The wannabe Home Secretary claimed Brits “invented racism” and called Parliament “the heart of darkness, in the belly of the beast”.
Yesterday she said it was "curious" that Theresa May was singling her out for attacks during her Question Time audience.
She said: “Desperate stuff by May. Claims I want to wipe DNA database clean. Never said that. Curious that she is singling me out for attack #BBCQT.”
Labour ally Paul Mason was later slammed for suggesting racism was to blame.