‘Parliament was the most overpoweringly male place I had ever worked’: Diane Abbott on becoming an MP, dating Jeremy Corbyn and media intrusion – exclusive extract

More intimidating was the fact that round every corner were attendants wearing black tailcoats, who took even longer than our MP colleagues to become accustomed to the Black newcomers. Bernie, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz could not have looked more different, yet they were regularly confused with one another (though any such confusion was avoided in the cloakroom, which had a named hanger for each MP). When I was first elected, every hanger had a long loop of red ribbon, which was traditionally for MPs to hang their swords from, never mind that no one had worn a sword in parliament for 700 years – it just went to show how long it can take parliament to adapt to change.