Diane Abbott replaced in Labour’s top team on eve of election

Jeremy Corbyn, UK Labour leader, has replaced Diane Abbott as shadow home secretary “for the period of her ill health”, telling reporters during a trip to Glasgow on Wednesday that his longtime ally was “not well”.

The unprecedented shake-up of Labour’s top team, just one day before Thursday’s general election, came after the Conservatives raised repeated questions about Ms Abbott’s competence in the final days of their campaign.

Many Labour candidates have told reporters that voters have made hostile, unprompted comments about Ms Abbott on doorsteps in recent days.

Ms Abbott, who is standing for re-election as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, has come under criticism for two gaffe-prone interviews during the election campaign. In one interview on LBC radio, she was unable to explain how Labour would pay for its promise to hire an extra 10,000 police officers. More recently, she stumbled repeatedly on Sky News when asked about an official report into terrorism.

Ms Abbott tweeted on Wednesday afternoon: “Touched by all the messages of support. Still standing! Will rejoin the fray soon. Vote Labour!”

Asked about Ms Abbott’s removal on Wednesday, Theresa May, the UK prime minister, said: “How Jeremy Corbyn manages his shadow cabinet is for him. I just wish Diane a speedy recovery.”

On Tuesday, Ms Abbott pulled out of two important election events — a debate on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and a hustings organised by the Evening Standard newspaper — citing an unexplained illness. But she was photographed chatting on her phone at a London tube station at 8.40am on Tuesday.

Ms Abbott then appeared to be caught out by an email prankster sending her a message pretending to be from Seumas Milne, Labour’s director of communications.

She replied: “Do you still want to add colour to the illness story? If so maybe we should speak.”

In a second email, she said: “I am worried about telling untruths about my health which are easily disproved.”

The Labour party said in a statement on Wednesday morning: “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.”

Ms Brown, standing for re-election as MP for West Ham, was previously a shadow policing minister.

The Conservatives have targeted Ms Abbott in their campaigning in recent weeks.

An analysis by BuzzFeed found that a third of recent Tory emails to party members have mentioned the “threat” of Ms Abbott becoming home secretary. She has also featured in attack videos on the Conservative party’s official Facebook page, pointing out that she would be in charge of counter-terrorism operations if Labour is elected.

Mrs May repeatedly name-checked Ms Abbott during an appearance on the BBC last Friday. Amber Rudd, home secretary, also told the BBC in a recent interview: “I wish I had more of an opportunity to make the point about why Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott would be so bad for the security of this country.”

Ms Abbott is one of Mr Corbyn’s oldest political allies, and the two briefly dated after the break-up of his first marriage in the 1970s, travelling to East Germany together on motorbikes.

Some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters have suggested that repeated criticism of Ms Abbott is related to her race and gender.

“She draws the attention of critics primarily because she’s a black woman,” said Arron Bastani of Novara Media, a news website that backs Mr Corbyn.

The Labour leader himself has said Ms Abbott has received “totally unfair levels of attack and abuse” over many years.

However, there have been recent indications of divisions between Ms Abbott and Mr Corbyn’s team. Mr Corbyn’s aides reportedly tried unsuccessfully to stop Ms Abbott from appearing on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

On the programme, she was asked whether she regretted calling for the IRA to defeat the British state. In an interview in 1984, she had said that “every defeat of the British state is a victory for all of us”.

Ms Abbott replied that the comment had been made 34 years ago, adding: “I had a rather splendid afro at the time. I don’t have the same hairstyle and I don’t have the same views.”