She continued forcefully: “I accept that male politicians can get abuse too, but I hope the one thing we can agree on in this chamber is that it’s much worse for women.

“And I think as well as the rise of online [avenues], anonymity is the thing. People would not come up to me and attack me for being a n***** in public, but they’ll do it online. And I’m telling you, this isn’t once a week, during the election – this is every day.”

The Labour MP also said that media commentary had some impact on online abuse, saying her office sees a “spike” in abusive messages “after there has been a lot of negative stuff in the media”.

Abbot faced criticism during the election campaign for disastrous media interviews shortly before she took time out for ill health. Her break prompted speculation on her health and the effect of the abuse she’s dealt with throughout her career, with a fundraising page even set up in order to send her a ‘care package’.

She later revealed that she’d stepped back to get on top of the type 2 diabetes she was diagnosed with two years ago, saying she’d not eaten properly while doing back-to-back interviews.

In the same interview, she told The Guardian that she felt Conservative campaigning had “singled her out”.

“The first time I became aware that I was a target of a national campaign was when people in marginals in the north were WhatsApping me to say there were ad vans talking about me, with a picture of me and Jeremy [Corbyn] on.

“Then there were these targeted Facebook ads. There was one which was a mash-up ad which made it sound as if I supported al-Qaida. We did contemplate taking legal action […] It was literally fake news.”

Diane Abbott describes the vile racist and sexist abuse she receives daily