Home Secretary won’t walk the streets of Hackney - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community

Home Secretary won't walk the streets of Hackney

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 20, 2008 - 2:50

Jacqui Smith said she didn't think people walk in Hackney at night

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Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has told the Sunday Times that she wouldn't walk the streets of Hackney, an area with a burgeoning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) population, at night. Ironically, fellow Home Office Minister, Meg Hillier is the MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch.

Asked by the newspaper if she would walk alone in Hackney Ms Smith replied: "Well, no, but I don't think I'd have ever have done."

She added "Well, I just don't think that's a thing that people do, is it, really?" The interviewer pointed out to her that many people do not have a choice.

When Ms Smith, who last year admitted that she smoked cannabis as a student, was also asked if she would walk around Kensington and Chelsea at night, she responded: "Well, I wouldn't walk around at midnight and I'm fortunate that I don't have to do that."

She did, however, say that she recently "bought a kebab in Peckham."

Both Peckham (South East London) and Hackney have attracted an upwardly mobile LGBT community, keen to take advantage of economic redevelopment, particularly in Hackney, a host borough for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Ms Hiller, a junior Home Office Minister spoke at PinkNews.co.uk first birthday celebrations.

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