Diane Abbott finds a novel way to spend heated PLP meeting

Last night’s PLP meeting proved to be a lively affair as Jeremy Corbyn was turned on by members of the Labour party over his ‘shoot to kill’ comments. As Mr S’s colleague Sebastian Payne reports, Corbyn was then ‘shouted down’ by MPs for his stance on military action and Syria.

So where was the Labour leader’s primary cheerleader Diane Abbott while all this was going on? Well Abbott, who has won herself the nickname Madame Mao since her close friend – and rumoured former lover – was elected, was rather distracted at the event.

In fact, far from taking on the role of Corbyn’s attack dog, one insider tells the Mirror that the shadow international development secretary spent the meeting writing her Christmas cards:

‘It was a different story for Shadow International Development Secretary Diane Abbott, who apparently sat writing Christmas cards during the 70-minute clash.

“She wasn’t listening to the questions, just writing a big stack of Christmas cards,” said an insider.