Diane Abbott reveals real reason she stopped dating Jeremy Corbyn after nightmare date

Diane Abbott has opened up about a disastrous date she had with Jeremy Corbyn when the pair were an item in the 1970s.

In an edited extract published by The Guardian from her upcoming book A Woman Like Me, the veteran left-wing Labour MP said Corbyn's love and enthusiasm for politics played a key role in inspiring her begin a long career in parliament, but some of his ideas for dates during their relationship left a little to be desired.

The pair got together while Corbyn was volunteering at campaigns for Labour as a north London councillor and lived together for a short time.

Towards the end of their brief relationship, Abbott says she "began to realise that, realistically, ours was not a match made in heaven" and that despite their affection for each other, they were too different.

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said: "I had a range of interests and enjoyed reading and the theatre, but Jeremy was 99 percent absorbed in party politics.

"The only other thing I remember him spending time on was growing vegetables in his back garden. Once, after I lamented our lack of social activity as a couple, he pondered it for a few days and told me we were going out."

She recalled: "Feeling excited, I dressed up nicely and we bundled into the car. I had no idea where we were going – perhaps a nice wine bar? It turned out Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive me to Highgate cemetery and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx."

Abbott also recalled a camping holiday they went on together in the south of France in 1979, revealing Corbyn's political principles even influenced the motorbike they rode there on, an East German "socialist" model.

She spent Christmas with Corbyn's parents the following year and said she learnt where the former Labour leader got his "personal austerity" from.

Christmas at his family home was quite different from her experience of "Jamaican Christmases", she further claimed.

Corbyn's parents were "more abstemious", and "moderate consumers to a fault", she said. "Dinner seemed mostly about boiled vegetables; a turkey was their sole concession to the festive season. The house was freezing and there was no alcohol."

The pair split after a brief romance but Abbott, who has remained a friend and political ally of Corbyn, says it wasn't acrimonious, adding: "Jeremy does not do acrimony.

"A couple of our mutual friends – Bernie Grant and Islington councillor Keith Veness – helped me move my belongings out of Jeremy’s house," she said.

"There were no regrets for either of us: for me, meeting Jeremy in 1978 had steered my political life in a new direction, and for that I was grateful."

Abbott has been a member of parliament continually since June 1987 and this year gained the title of "Mother of the House", given to the longest-serving female Member of Parliament.

It came after Harriet Harman, the previous holder, stepped down at the general election.