Diane Abbott reveals diabetes struggle during election
Labour MP Diane Abbott has spoken of her struggle to control her Type 2 diabetes during the recent General Election campaign, saying her medical condition was "out of control".
Ms Abbott, 63, was replaced as shadow home secretary due to ill health after struggling in interviews during the campaign - an issue that she has said came about as a result of fluctuating blood sugar levels.
She said: "During the election campaign, everything went crazy - and the diabetes was out of control, the blood sugar was out of control.
"It is a condition you can manage. I am doing that now and I feel ready to get back to work."
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago but her medical condition was only disclosed after she had to be replaced in her shadow cabinet post by colleague Lyn Brown during the election campaign.
It came after she came under fire from the Conservatives when she forgot figures for Labour's police funding plans during an interview with LBC radio and struggled to discuss details of a security report on an appearance on Sky News.
In a Guardian interview in which the veteran politician spoke about her diabetes she criticised the way she was singled out for attack during the election and reassured readers she had always had a "great memory for figures" but this was affected by the health issue she was battling at the time.
She said: "The Tories need to explain why they singled me out. It felt terrible, it felt awful - you felt you were in a kind of vortex - as I became aware of what was happening - the Facebook ads, the Tories name-dropping me for no reason."