Diane Abbott replaced: Ill health?

[PizzaPower]

So she's gone, is it really ill health, or do they think she is a massive liability and a vote looser?

Boris Johnson has ALWAYS been a bit of a buffoon though, hasn't he? The change in Dianne Abbott's demeanor is alarming. That's why people are speculating that she might be ill and deserving of sympathy.

It was worse than that. It was "white people love playing divide and rule".

Thanks Dan. Interesting.

Hopefully someone will specify what the racist and sexist "smears" against her are too. (Maybe also something said/seen online?) @Branleuse?

The question now is is she fit to continue as an MP? If she is reelected in tomorrow's vote can she continue to represent her constituency? It's too late to stand aside as the Labour candidate but I'm assuming it's a sufficiently safe Labour seat that no one else will get in.

What's the Tory excuse?

Give it a fucking rest @makeourfuture

You're annoying your own 'side' too. We are here for varied and interesting discussion, NOT to be badgered into insanity by a Labour-bot (and I'm a - grudging - party member).

Today 09:59 VikingVolva

"She can be both ill and a liability."

Agree

Agree also. The woman is a hypocrite for one thing and her opinions and delivery grate. The illness reason seems terribly convenient to me.

Good that she's gone. Would have stopped alot of people from voting for labour.

Early onset dementia possibly?

Boris Johnson affects that persona - it seems to have worked for him in the past. With Abbott, what you see is what you get: not a lot of any value.

Cackleberry
I read that she had foot in mouth disease

😂

I have never particularly liked Diane Abbot, but she has not seemed her usual self of late. There's no need to be unkind just because you don't agree with her politics.

She's certainly not a moron. She's a black working class woman who got into Cambridge for her degree - it's a fantastic achievement whether you agree with her politics or not.

She is so obviously changed from the days when she happily sparred with Michael Portillo on this week that it's no wonder people are saying she's ill. The continued attacks from Conservatives now that she's had to step down are vile.

For comparison, Amber Rudd met with sympathy when it became known that she'd suffered a bereavement, yet still soldiered on. I'm glad that the more compassionate on MN are able to extend that same sympathy to Diane Abbott.

It was worse than that. It was "white people love playing divide and rule".

Not just this. She also said that blonde, blue-eyed Finnish nurses were unfit to deal with black patients in her electoral borough.

And when defending her decision to send her son to private school, she said the black mothers will go to the wall for their children implying that white or Asian (or any other colour or ethnicity) don't give a shit enough about theirs.

No one else need to 'smear' Diane Abbott, she manages to do it perfectly well on her own.

I'm really sad she has stepped down because she is comedy gold.

She has changed that is very clear to see. I hope she gets better soon. It must be very difficult being ill and trying to win an election.

It was Lynda Lee-Potter, I recall, who accused Mo Mowlam of looking a mess, before it was revealed that Mowlam had a brain tumour. Lee-Potter herself later died of a brain tumour, strangely.

No idea what's up with Diane Abbott, but it's clear something's wrong.

No one else need to 'smear' Diane Abbott, she manages to do it perfectly well on her own.

Of course, it's quite possible for someone to be racist AND to be the subject of racism.

Was the Finnish nurse thing something she said in interview? Or another tweet?

Lynda Lee-Potter was always so reliably nasty and her timing was awful.

She also did a take-down piece on Princess Diana that hit the stands just as she was dying.

The journalist Paul Waugh has tweeted: 'Labour's Barry Gardiner just told me: "I have been told that Diane [Abbott] has been diagnosed with a serious, long-term condition"'.

They're just referencing the Diabetes again in a an attempt to make everything square aren't they?

I would wish illness on anyone.
That said her stepping down is the best possible news I could have woken up to.
A liability and a truely awful human being imo.

I'm really sad she has stepped down because she is comedy gold

so you laugh at ill people? Nice

I think it is blatantly obvious that she is not very well.
She is an experienced politician and is used to being scrutinised and vilified by some parts of the media.
The fact that she has so many shambolic interviews gives me the impression that something is wrong with her.
I am not a fan of DA for various reasons, but I think that some of the right wing press coverage.has been vile.
It angers me that Dacre and Murdoch have such an influence on who governs our country

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/news.sky.com/story/amp/diane-abbotts-history-of-gaffes-10482258

Try this serf

After reading her E-mails she talks about "adding colour" to the "illness story" Sounds like she is not being entirely truthful??

She has been replaced on a tempory basis and will be back as soon as Labour are in power.

Let's just see what happens .

Theresa May also has diabetes, of course, though hers is Type 1. If Abbott's email is accurate, and she has diabetes, the chances are it's Type 2, which is often accompanied by other chronic conditions. So perhaps there is something else wrong with her.