Diane Abbott pictured on Tube 20 minutes before pulling out of interview over 'illness'

It’s been another bad day for Diane Abbott.

The shadow Home Secretary has had a tough election campaign – being pilloried left, right and centre over a number of car crash interviews.

Even though Conservative ministers, such as Philip Hammond and Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, have endured equally damaging moments on live TV or radio, it is Abbott who has suffered most publicly.

On Monday, she was ridiculed after an interview with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News about an anti-terror report published last year.

The Labour politician was unable to recall any of the report’s 127 recommendations in a discussion about the London Bridge attack, even though she insisted she had read it.

As the fallout gained momentum on Tuesday, Labour announced that she wouldn’t be available to take part in a scheduled interview on Woman’s Hour at 9am due to illness.

She has also backed out, of a planned Evening Standard event at 7pm tonight, accoring the paper’s editor George Osborne.

The only problem is that Abbott was pictured at Oxford Circus Tube station at 8.40am this morning – 20 minutes before she was due on air.

The Conservatives have sought to make the most out of the blunder.

“Jeremy Corbyn wants to make Diane Abbott Home Secretary in just two days but is hiding her away from voters,” Tory minister Priti Patel said.

“The woman who would be in charge of our police and the intelligence services cannot even be trusted by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell to go on the airwaves to explain their shocking record on national security.

Although it has since been pointed out that Theresa May also bailed on Woman’s Hour when polls started turning against her.

Ms Abbott has already been involved in two previous media gaffes in this election campaign.

She was mocked last month after she failed to provide accurate costings for Labour’s policing policy in an LBC radio interview, estimating anything from £300,000 to £80 million.

A few days later, she was caught out in an television interview with ITN, estimating that Labour’s net losses in local elections were 50, before the interviewer informed her they were 125.

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In her latest awkward exchange, she was asked about an anti-terror report published last October by former Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Lord Harris about security in London.

Ms Abbott told Sky News it was time to ‘revisit’ the report’s findings, but when asked by Mr Murnaghan which part, she merely replied: ‘I just think it’s about preparedness and resilience.’

Pressed on whether she knew specifically what it recommended, she said: ‘I know he was talking about preparedness and resilience and I do think we need to act, not necessarily on every specific recommendation.’

Asked once more, she said: ‘I thought, because I know Toby Harris – he’s a long-standing London politician – I thought it was an important review and we should act on it, obviously acting with stakeholders.’

Mr Murnaghan then asked about Lord Harris’s recommendations for the police forces in the capital.

Ms Abbott said: ‘You mean the idea they should work more closely together?’

He replied: ‘No, he was suggesting they should amalgamate.’

Ms Abbott said it was an ‘interesting’ idea but suggested that it would meet resistance.

Mr Murnaghan then asked her about the report’s recommendations on greater ‘physical resilience’. She said: ‘Yes, I think physical resilience is important.’

However, she again appeared unaware that it included putting up more barriers to protect people until Mr Murnaghan informed her.

Ms Abbott denied reports that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell wanted to keep her off air during the remaining stages of the election, fearing she had become a liability.

‘I am here. I have just come from doing another media interview. I’m going on to do another media interview. There is no truth in the idea I’m not in the media,’ she said.