Police data in the United Kingdom shows a sharp increase in hate crimes in Britain’s most ‘Eurosceptic’ areas following the Brexit vote earlier this year, The Independent reported.
In areas where voters opted to ‘Leave’ the European Union, data shows consistent doubling and tripling of hate crime which surpasses the average nationwide increase of 57 per cent in hate crimes reported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) following the referendum.
The NPCC said it had received over 6,000 reports of hate crimes in the four weeks after June 16. NPCC head Mark Hamilton said earlier this month that he believed the debate surrounding the referendum was responsible for the inflated figures.
Public harassment was the most common crime recorded, but dozens of racially or religiously motivated assaults which involved bodily harm and beatings, arson, death threats, threatening letters, criminal damage and possession of a bladed weapon are also among the reported crimes.
The highest ‘Leave’ vote in the country emerged from Lincolnshire, where 75pc of voters opted out of the EU. Police data shows a 191pc increase in hate crimes in the area as compared to the same time period last year, from 22 in 2015 to 42 in 2016.
Kent, with 60pc of voters opting for ‘Leave’, recorded 16 hate crimes in 2015 compared to 39 in the corresponding period this year, an increase of 143pc. In Derbyshire, an increase in hate crimes of 121pc was recorded, from 14 such instances last year to 31 the week after the Brexit vote.
Although Nottinghamshire, another strong Leave area, appeared to be an exception with an 11pc increase in hate crimes, the data suggests this may be due to an unusually high reporting of criminal damage hate crimes in the corresponding time period last year. Violent hate crimes, however, were up 140pc in the county in the week after the referendum results were revealed.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who earlier this week announced that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) would examine police responses to hate crime reports said the British government was determined to build a country “that works for everyone”.
“We will not stand for it. Hatred has no place whatsoever in a 21st century Great Britain.”
