Watch: Diane Abbott taken to task by furious Brexit voter

Diane Abbott suggested last year that some voters backed Brexit because they wanted to see ‘less foreign-looking people on their streets’. On Question Time yesterday, she finally got her comeuppance. A furious Leave supporter took her to task on the show by asking her whether she had any remorse for her remarks. The audience member told her:

‘You say you respect the will of the people, but do you have any remorse or any apologies to make for the disgusting lie you made against me and millions of innocent people that voted Leave – that because they voted Leave, they don’t like the look of foreign people and must be racist or a xenophobe.’

Abbott responded by waffling on about Tony Benn, saying that she admired the former Labour grandee even though he would have voted to leave the EU. But instead of then offering the angry Brexit voter an apology, Abbott managed to make things worse –  by suggesting that the rise in hate crimes was linked to the referendum.