People are very unhappy with this tweet about Diane Abbott

The Daily Telegraph has published a story in which it appears to reduce shadow cabinet minister Diane Abbott to the status of Jeremy Corbyn's former lover.

The article, which was published in Monday's paper and posted online on Sunday night, appears to bypass the fact that Abbott has been an MP for nearly 30 years and has twice served in the shadow cabinet, and instead focuses on her links to the party leader in an story that has nothing to do with him.

It starts:

Diane Abbott, the Labour MP who once had a fling with Jeremy Corbyn, has backed a traffic scheme that could see the value of her house go above £1 million.

While the print and online story both headline the article using Abbott's surname, perhaps the worst part was the publication of this tweet which forgoes that formality altogether and accompanies the story with a somewhat unflattering photo:

People on Twitter were not impressed:

A spokesperson for the shadow international development secretary told i100.co.uk the tweet was "appalling" and "scurrilous". Ms Abbott is currently in a shadow cabinet meeting but will respond more fully in due course.

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