Downing Street Slaps Down Diane Abbott's 'Untrue' Claims About Boris Johnson

Labour Party MP Diane Abbott. (Photo: SOPA Images via Getty Images)

Downing Street has slapped down claims by Labour MP Diane Abbott about Boris Johnson.

The senior backbencher made an allegation that the prime minister was “rumoured to like assaulting women” during an interview on Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.

She accused him of “sheer hypocrisy” in response to a question about allegations surrounding Chris Pincher.

Asked about the comments today, the PM’s official spokesman said: “Obviously that claim is untrue. But I’m not going to get into engaging on political points beyond that.”

He said he believed the BBC had taken some action and that no one should be making untrue statements in that way.

During the segment, Paddy O’Connell quickly rebuked the claim and added: “Diane, you’ve got to answer my questions rather than raising new claims.”

The BBC temporarily removed the programme from its catch-up service to edit out the segment.

A spokesperson said: “For editorial reasons, we are editing today’s episode of Broadcasting House.

“We are working to make it available to listeners as soon as possible.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.

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