MP Diane Abbott gets embroiled in a row on Twitter

UK SHADOW health minister Diane Abbot has come under fire after she made a seemingly racist comment on Twitter.

Abbott was reacting to criticism of the term "black community leaders" that came up because of the Stephen Lawrence murder case. She tweeted, "White people love playing 'divide & rule' We should not play their game".

As the press started to pick up the story, Abbott initially was praised for leaving the comment up, but she later removed it, so sadly we can't show you the original tweet.

She later claimd that the tweet had been "taken out of context". She said, "Tweet taken out of context. Refers to nature of 19th Century European colonialism. Bit much to get into 140 characters."

Abbott was reacting to a conversation about media coverage in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, in reply to a comment that said, "I do wish everyone would stop saying 'the black community' though. Which one?"

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi used the opportunity to slate the opposition party on BBC Radio 5 Live, and said that Abbott's comments were "intolerable", adding, "This is racism."

"If this was a white member of Parliament saying that all black people want to do bad things to us he would have resigned within the hour or be sacked.

"For a shadow minister to hold these sort of views is intolerable, it is wrong, she needs to go." µ