Beleaguered Abbott reveals: I have diabetes

DIANE Abbott last night revealed she stepped aside as Shadow Home Secretary because she has diabetes.

The veteran Labour frontbencher, pictured, was replaced just days before the election after a series of car-crash interviews.

But yesterday she told The Guardian she had gone because she had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes two years ago. Prime Minister Theresa May has Type 1 diabetes.

Miss Abbott accused the Tories of the most vicious and negative election campaign in her memory, and expressed her disappointment that a female prime minister had singled her out as a target. She insisted that she was managing her condition and felt ready to return to work, but admitted it had affected her performance in a series of ‘car-crash’ interviews.

‘During the election campaign, everything went crazy – and the diabetes was out of control, the blood sugar was out of control,’ she said last night.

Miss Abbott said she was affected after conducting six or seven interviews in a row without eating enough food, adding: ‘It is a condition you can manage. I am doing that now.’