Anna Soubry slams Diane Abbott for being ‘too ill’ to vote on Article 50 despite MPs with cancer taking part

Shadow Home Secretary heavily criticised after missing crucial vote because of 'migraine'

Anna Soubry has slammed Labour’s Diane Abbott for missing last week’s crucial Article 50 vote after the Shadow Home Secretary claimed she had a migraine.

Ms Abbott, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, angered fellow Labour MPs after saying she was too ill to vote on whether Brexit negotiations should begin – despite having spoken in another parliamentary debate just three hours earlier.

Ms Abbott’s Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency voted overwhelmingly for Britain to Remain in the EU. Three other shadow cabinet ministers in Remain-supporting constituencies decided to resign in order to vote against Brexit.

Ms Soubry, the Conservative MP for Broxtowe and a vocal Remain supporter, told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show it was “farcical” that Ms Abbott had failed to vote when even MPs with cancer had managed to do so.

She said: “It is farcical what is happening. Diane was taken terribly poorly and actually couldn’t vote even though there were people with very serious cancers who did come in and vote.

“[Labour] are all over the place and you should be in no doubt whatsoever about these huge fractures within Labour.”

It comes after 47 Labour MPs defied a three-line whip issued by Mr Corbyn instructing them to vote in support of triggering Brexit.

A number of other junior ministers, and three party whips, joined the three shadow cabinet ministers in defying Mr Corbyn’s instructions and are now waiting to see if he will sack them.

Critics claimed Ms Abbott had missed the vote in order to avoid having to resign. Her office insists she was taken ill shortly before the vote and forced to go home, having told Mr Corbyn’s office of the situation.

But Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, declined to defend Ms Abbott. She said: “I don’t know the details of this. All I’m told is that she was ill. That’s all I know. There’s nothing else I can say.”

Earlier Labour MPs had called for the Shadow Home Secretary to apologise and resign.

The Government’s Article 50 bill will return to the House of Commons on Monday. More Labour MPs are expected to vote against it unless the Government accepts a number of amendments, including one that would guarantee Parliament a vote on the final exit package that Theresa May negotiates with the EU.

Clive Lewis, the Shadow Business Secretary, has threatened to vote against the Bill if such amendments are not passed – a situation that would likely force him to resign from the shadow cabinet. Should Ms Abbott follow suit it would mean Mr Corbyn losing two of his closest allies in his top team, but reports suggest Ms Abbott is likely to toe the party line this time around.