MPs see Hackney at night and say 'it seems safe to us'

A group of MPs ventured on to the streets of Hackney after dark, pouring scorn on comments by the Home Secretary that she would not feel safe there.

Members of the home affairs select committee were given a tour of Stoke Newington by local MP Diane Abbott.

Their visit followed remarks by Jacqui Smith last month that she would not feel safe when out alone at night in the east London borough.

Her aides had tried to atone by revealing she went for a kebab, only for it to emerge that she was accompanied by her police bodyguard.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz was shown the pubs, bars and restaurants of Stoke Newington's Church Street last night with fellow MPs Karen Buck and Gwyn Prosser.

They also visited an estate where a teenage boy had recently been shot dead yards from his front door. But Mr Vaz said: "Hackney seems extremely safe to me. We do have the advantage of being guided by the local MP but I must say it seems very nice indeed."

Ms Abbott said Miss Smith should not have fed a "a climate of fear" with her comments.

She added: "I just wanted to show once and for all that the Home Secretary was wrong to say it was not safe to walk the streets of Hackney at night."

The borough's police commander, Chief Superintendent Steve Dann, said his officers were upset when Miss Smith made her remarks and pointed out Hackney's reduced crime rate over the last three years. But Veronique Nyembo-Ya-Muteba, whose husband Stevens was shot dead in 2006, branded the tour "a publicity stunt". She said: "Hackney is not that safe because my husband was killed on his own doorstep."