Diane Abbott clashes with Met Police chief Mark Rowley over 'disproportionate' stop and search

London's police chief has clashed with veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott over stop and search.

The Hackney North & Stoke Newington MP questioned Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley when he appeared before the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Ms Abbott told the commissioner his officers were stopping and searching the black community disproportionately.

But Sir Mark said young black men in London were 12 times more likely to be murdered than young white men.

"Our efforts to protect those young men and trying to stop that means we are going to put more stop and search in those areas," said Sir Mark.

But Ms Abbott replied: "Don't think the young black men you are stopping and searching would accept you are just doing it to protect them."

Sir Mark admitted stop and search was not working for black Londoners and said the answer was more community policing.

The MP also challenged him over Scotland Yard's 'gangs matrix' - a database of more than 1,800 suspected gang members.

Ms Abbott asked if the Gangs Violence Matrix (GVM) had outlived its usefulness and quoted an Amnesty International report calling for it to be scrapped.

'What the report says is that stigmatizing young black men on the basis of the music they listen to, their social media behaviour or who they associate with is completely unacceptable,' said Ms Abbott.

Sir Mark said he did not accept the finding and defended the GVM as a way of targeting the most dangerous offenders and spotting "the men of violence".

He added: "Reports like that one from Amnesty International seem to have an implication police shouldn't target effort, which is a guarantee for failure."

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