MP Diane Abbott was heckled by students after she arrived almost an hour late to speak to them because she was getting her phone fixed.
The former Shadow Public Health Minister was berated by politics pupils at Brooke House Sixth Form College in Hackney, when she rolled up 50 minutes late.
She told the group, who were due to discuss and form proposals for their new campaign to bring back a form of Education Maintenance Allowance, that she was late due to waiting over an hour and a half for her mobile to be repaired.
This prompted an outburst from a student who exclaimed, “Oh, so your phone is more important than politics?”
“I was there for an hour and a half… it was one of those things,” she explained.
The group of 30 got just 10 minutes to listen to the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington speak, as most of them had to move on to their next class at 3pm.
Alethea Calvert-John, 19, a student at the college said: “I want to be a politician, but nothing like her. She wouldn’t turn up to the Houses of Parliament that late.”
When the room found time to talk about EMA, Abbott was adamant that some form of EMA should be returned. “Scrapping the EMA was more damaging for the young people of Hackney than putting up tuition fees. One of the most important things Labour could do is bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance.”
