DIANE Abbott has insisted she is "still standing" and hopes to return to the political front line soon after withdrawing from the General Election campaign due to an undisclosed illness.
Jeremy Corbyn swiftly appointed Lyn Brown, a Shadow Home Affairs Minister, to fill the Shadow Cabinet role.
Ms Brown, the party’s candidate for West Ham, where she has been MP since 2005, was among a number of shadow ministers who quit the frontbench last year, saying Labour needed a new leader "for the good of the party and the country".
However three months later, she returned to Ms Abbott's home affairs team as Shadow Minister for Policing.
John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, played down Ms Brown’s rebellion, saying she had changed her mind about Mr Corbyn and explaining how her earlier comment was said “in the heat of some of the debates within the parliamentary Labour Party”.
He added: “What’s been interesting since then is a number of people who were sceptical about Jeremy at that point in time have come out and said: ‘Look, we’ve seen him in the campaign, we’ve seen what he can do, and this is the most honest and decent and principled and strong leader that we’ve had; maybe in generations.’”
Ms Abbott’s withdrawal followed an embarrassing interview early on in the campaign when she gave a confusing account of Labour’s policy on increasing police numbers by giving various figures. Earlier this week, she stumbled during a Sky News interview on counter-terrorism and then withdrew from a debate on Woman’s Hour and a London hustings event.
But in a cheery message on Twitter, Ms Abbott broke her silence to say: "Touched by all the messages of support. Still standing! Will rejoin the fray soon. Vote Labour!"
Her illness has not been disclosed. Barry Gardiner, her Shadow Cabinet colleague, said she had been diagnosed with a long-term condition which might have played a part in her below-par interview performances during the election campaign.
“Anybody who has seen her in the past couple of weeks would realise that she was showing that she was not well, in the way in which she had been operating.”
He added: "I am sorry for her, obviously, that she has got this condition and clearly it is now a matter for her to get properly diagnosed and properly treated and I wish her well in her recovery."
It is understood that the condition affecting the 63-year-old, who has been the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, would not prevent her eventual return to work once she has recovered.
Shortly before announcing Ms Brown's temporary appointment, Mr Corbyn said that Ms Abbott had not been well for a "couple of days".
He added: "Of course, Diane is somebody that works extremely hard and represents her community very well and I have to say has received totally unfair levels of attack and abuse, not just recently; over many years."
Asked about the Shadow Secretary of State’s withdrawal, Theresa May said: "How Jeremy Corbyn manages his Shadow Cabinet is for him. I just wish Diane a speedy recovery."
The Labour leader began his final day of campaigning in Glasgow, where he told a crowd of cheering supporters in Buchanan Street: "They underestimated us didn't they? They underestimated the good sense of ordinary people, ordinary people all over Britain."
Mr Corbyn said he did not see the "urgency or the need" for another independence referendum in Scotland and that he was hopeful of a "very historic" Labour majority on Friday.
The speech marked Mr Corbyn's 84th campaign rally with a further six events planned across the country over the course of the day, culminating in his Islington North constituency in the evening.
He said: "This campaign is a choice and there has never been a clearer choice.
"The choice is another five years of a Tory government, underfunding of services all across the UK, including here in Scotland, or a Labour government that invests for all, all across Britain.”
Stressing again that Labour was “not doing deals,” he said: "Wouldn't it be great if on Friday we woke up to a Labour majority across the country, a Labour government that will be a government for all of our communities across the whole of the country, to deliver that social justice that we all crave."
Later at a rally in Runcorn, Cheshire, attended by around 1,000 people, the Labour leader urged voters to back Labour and choose "hope over fear" and in his final campaign interview he said reducing poverty would be at the heart of his Labour government.
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