Jeremy Corbyn carefully avoids committing to make Diane Abbott his Home Secretary

The Labour leader declined to criticise Ms Abbott for ‘trivialising’ historic comments about the IRA – but sidestepped a question about her role if his party wins the general election

Jeremy Corbyn has held back from committing to appointing Diane Abbott as Home Secretary in any future Labour government.

The party’s leader carefully sidestepped a question about Ms Abbott’s role after she refused to say she regretted comments in favour of the IRA in the 1980s.

She had earlier told Andrew Marr: “It is 34 years on. The hairstyle has gone, and some of the views have gone.”

Asked by ITV’s Robert Peston if she was guilty of “trivialising” the issue, Mr Corbyn declined to criticise his shadow Home Secretary.

But he avoided pledging that Ms Abbott would be appointed Home Secretary if Labour came to power in the 8 June election.

Mr Corbyn said only: “Diane is our home affairs spokesperson and I’m looking to appoint our shadow cabinet.”

Ms Abbott had earlier claimed on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show that her work as a graduate trainee at the Home Office boosted her credentials.

She said: “I think there’s something to be said for a Home Secretary who has actually worked in the Home Office. I worked in the Home Office for nearly three years as a graduate trainee and I know how it works from the inside.”

Grilled by the presenter on whether she regretted calling for the IRA to defeat the British state, she said: “That particular quote you’re referring to comes from a now defunct left newspaper.

“It was 34 years ago. I had a rather splendid afro at the time. I don’t have the same hairstyle and I don’t have the same views.

“It is 34 years on. The hairstyle has gone, and some of the views have gone.”

Mr Corbyn himself faced further questions about the IRA on ITV1’s Peston on Sunday.

Conservatives have accused him of lending support to the militant Irish Republican group.

But the Labour leader insisted: “I have not spoken to the the IRA. I have in the past and still do often meet people from Sinn Fein.

“I have met former prisoners who told me they were not in the IRA, but I have met former prisoners with my eyes open on the basis that there had to be the development of a peace process in Northern Ireland.”